Saved! Review
By Joe Lozito
Con the Baptists
I appreciate what writers Brian Dannelly and Michael Urban were trying to do with "Saved!", their send-up of Christian High School and its inhabitants, but Mr. Urban and Mr. Dannelly, who also directed, stop short of achieving the biting satire that their subject requires.
The plot, which seems promising enough, revolves around senior year at a Christian High School, during which the appropriately named Mary (Jena Malone) and her friend and Christian Cheerleader Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore) grow in wildly different directions. Ms. Malone conveys the correct degree of awkward teenage confusion and the script does a good job of "tempting" her away from the flock.
Mary's partner in crime becomes Cassandra, the school's only Jewish student (Eva Amurri). Cassandra, conveniently, falls into a relationship with Christian Cheerleader Hilary Faye's wheelchair-bound brother (Macaulay Culkin, appropriately snide, but awkward).
Ms. Moore taking on a role that could have been self-effacing, instead chooses to frown and screech her way through the role of Hilary Faye, the uber-senior. Ms. Moore's antics become increasingly sinister and unbelievable to the point that we're no longer looking at a character; she's a cardboard figure, making the film jump from satire to broad farce.
This can't all be pinned on Ms. Moore, who seems as though she might have worked better with stronger material. But Mr. Dannelly's rookie direction is clumsy at best. At times, reaction shots are edited in at random, timing is off, and character relationships become difficult to follow as the movie goes on.
Still, there are some fine moments, particularly during the opening scenes when Mary tries to "save" her potentially homosexual boyfriend, and the introduction of Pastor Skip (Martin Donovan), who backflips to the podium and is taken to lines like "Let's give it up for G-O-D!". Later in the film, though, the plot, which had walked a thin line between preaching and protesting, falls into proselytizing. It's a tough line to walk, and "Saved!" may want to have it both ways. That can't work. What could have been a "Heathers" becomes just another teen comedy, albeit one that will not have a prayer in the middle states.
