If ever anyone in a standard teen-angst movie claims to be a devout Christian, their faith is invariably targeted for ridicule, or the statement is merely a prelude to losing their inhibitions later on with the help of the film’s “cooler” characters. Director (and co-writer with Michael Urban) Brian Dannelly inverts the usual cinematic moral majority in Saved!, showing peer pressure in an exclusively Christian private high school. Imagine pep rallies for Jesus, anti-Santa Claus graffiti in the restrooms, and classmates performing exorcism-like “interventions” on peers they feel are drifting from the flock, and you’ve got some serious comedy that also effectively references some deadly-serious pockets of American reality.
Jerry Falwell derided Saved! as “the most hateful movie to come out of Hollywood in years,” proving once again how a sense of humour is not among many self-professing Christians’ divine gifts; by illustrating teens in the midst of spiritual crises, forming cliques as naturally as in secular schools, and arming themselves with Christian theology to help explain their emotional roller-coasters, Dannelly is taking matters of faith more seriously than Falwell might expect. It’s senior year at the suburban Baltimore American Eagle Christian High School for Mary (Jena Malone) and her best pal Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore), but when Mary’s boyfriend suspects he’s gay, she feels called by God to convince him otherwise by sacrificing her virginity – and ends up pregnant.
Mary’s newly-fallen state thoroughly dismays Hilary Faye, while the school’s other black sheep (Eva Amurri as the sole Jewish student, and a smirking Macaulay Culkin as Hilary Faye’s wheelchair-bound brother) end up being the only ones reaching out to offer support. Dannelly effectively contrasts the difference between judgment and love when nearly everyone claims to know what’s right in God’s eyes, and Hilary Faye throws her Bible at Mary, screaming “I am filled with God’s love!” Further complicating the pair’s friendship is their mutual crush on new student Patrick (Almost Famous’ Patrick Fugit), son of the school’s principal Pastor Skip (Martin Donovan), who also happens to be dating Mary’s mother (a gorgeous Mary-Louise Parker).
Mary’s boyfriend gets sent away to a Christian treatment centre to deprogram him of all his gay impulses, Mary tries to conceal her growing belly from both her mom and the student body, and Hilary Faye’s tough-love tactics toward her “wayward” pal sour their relations further. Everyone is forced to juggle their beliefs to respond to the rapidly complicating circumstances, and only those who can accept their own essential fallenness appear to roll best with the punches. The whole enterprise stays a level above most of its kind thanks to top-notch acting, a formidable soundtrack with the likes of Joseph Arthur and The Replacements, and a steady stream of head-turning lines that could only come from Saved!’s unique milieu: “What's the only reason a Christian girl comes downtown to the Planned Parenthood clinic?” “To plant a pipe bomb?” “Okay, two reasons.”
Saved! ultimately identifies its villains as those unable to apply their religious principles in shades other than black and white, and though the Election and John Hughes-esque elements are predictable enough, the visual and verbal punch lines come with sufficient regularity. We do get the standard kids-know-better-than-adults cliché, but the Christian setting is more than just a gimmick; the film ends up genuinely thought-provoking while putting the “fun” back in “fundamentalist.”
