Saved! (**)
review by Jon Waterman

Mary lives a good Christian life. She does everything asked of her by her religion. She lives happily with her mother, while attending a Christian High School with many friends and a bright future and a great boyfriend, Dean. However, when Dean confesses to being gay, Mary’s world begins to tumble. She tries everything she can to cure him of these thoughts including giving her body to him (after all, Jesus told her to). It ended up not being enough, because Dean gets transferred to Mercy House, a rehabilitation center for Christian youths and Mary is in for a few more surprises of her own. What results is a test of faith unlike any she has faced before.

This is director/co-writer (with Michael Urban) Brian Dannelly’s feature film debut. It’s a good effort, but could have been better. The shot selection and composition was very functional and safe. The script also served its purpose and also seemed to shy away at times (I’ll explain more in a bit). The best move was the casting. This is one of those movies full of potentially big-name stars. I know most of them have been acting a while; yet only Mandy Moore and Macaulay Culkin have the big-time name recognition factor (even though Culkin no longer deserves it). These kids are young and quite talented. As they grow and mature, I wouldn’t be surprised if they start climbing the Hollywood ranks. The acting is good. Jena Malone (Mary) surprisingly holds the lead with a reasonable amount of range. Moore sometimes steals the show as the overly happy, conversion crazy Hilary Faye (although, that could be partly because she’s the loudest). Culkin (playing Hilary Faye’s brother Roland), as I hinted at before fails to impress me. It seems like he’s just delivering an older version of his “Home Alone” character, Kevin, who’s slightly bitter and jaded not because of his wheelchair, but because of his ideology. He does give us the funniest moment in the picture.

The humor is hit or miss. It just seems to try too hard to play off of the situations at hand, when it should be looking for comedy from anywhere. It’ll make you crack a smile or too, give you a few giggles, and a couple laughs, but nothing spectacular. I wasn’t expecting a gut-buster, but I was hoping that the movie would be a little more thoughtful. With the religious theme surrounding everything, there were plenty of opportunities for the desired effect of statement mixed with satire. The satire was accomplished, sometimes rather subtly. The statement the film wants to make was quickly given near the end rather than reinforced throughout like it could have been.

It’s pretty obvious to tell if you’re right for the film. If you consider yourself rather religious (and especially if you don’t enjoy when people mock your religion), then I’d avoid this. If you’re the opposite, then give it a shot. Maybe you’ll get more out of it than I did. If you find yourself somewhere in the middle, it can’t hurt to hear what the different sides have to say, even though the film isn’t particularly thought provoking. No matter where you stand, keep in mind it’s not all that funny, powerful or good.

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