Saved! [2004]

In a world where most teen “coming of age” comedies suffer from retread scripts and lack of originality, Saved! manages to come out of nowhere and be one of the best of its type for quite some time. It may be the fact that co-scripters Brian Dannelly (who also directed) and Michael Urban have made their characters more realistic and human than a lot of these films do, or it may just be the fact they’ve set the entire thing in American Eagle Christian High School giving them a chance to satirize religion and its effects on impressionable younger people. In other words, think Heathers or Mean Girls only with a religious bent (though this isn’t nearly as dark as Heathers, still the ultimate black comedy about teenage life almost twenty years later).

Jenna Malone is Mary, a virginal born again Christian teenage girl whose boyfriend tells her that he’s gay. This comes as a complete shock to her and in order to “save” him, as well as keep their relationship going, she decides to use sex to try and convert him back to heterosexuality. It doesn’t quite work in her favour; however, when it turns out she becomes pregnant.

From there the movie follows Mary as she tries to conceal her pregnancy from her parents and other students while she has to deal with zealot Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore, who goes against type and is surprisingly good for it), the leader of a clique group called “The Jewels” who takes her religious beliefs a bit too seriously – while not realizing just how much she manipulates and judges her fellow students.

Also in the mix are rebellious Jewish student Cassandra (Eva Amurri, daughter of Susan Sarandon) and Hilary’s wheelchair bound brother Roland (Macaulay Culkin), who befriend Mary and try to show her that things aren’t as peachy at American Eagle as everyone tries to pretend it is.

I’d heard good things about Saved! going into it, but I wasn’t expecting it to be this good. It’s packed with completely sarcastic humour and loads of witty dialogue, it manages to touch on some serious topics (mainly un-wed pregnancy and, to a lesser degree, religious outcasts), and it is enough of a twist on the dull teen comedies of recent years that it’s highly successful at what it does.

It also helps that the young cast is solid from top to bottom with Malone stable, Moore (as mentioned before) a revelation, and the duo of Amurri and Culkin pretty much stealing the show out from under everyone else as not only an unlikely couple, but also the most “true to themselves” characters in the entire school.

Obviously, Saved! isn’t for everyone. It doesn’t hold much back when making fun of religion (a touchy subject to begin with) and some might take it to task for that, but if you have no problems with such a thing you’ll be treated to one completely entertaining, and pretty fun, comedy.

3.5 out of 4

Directed by Brian Dannelly. Written by Dannelly, Michael Urban. 92 minutes. PG-13