sharkstank
04-14-2004, 10:41 PM
well heres my review fter seeing the screener. i sent this to jo but here it is anyway. in case you didnt read my other thread, i got sent the screener b4 i was goin gto uinterview jena malone for the local paper, so here ism the review
Saved! ***
A dark comedy about religion and young women coming of age, “Saved!” is an entertaining and humorous look into how misguided some overtly religious people can be in their intentions. The focal character is Mary (Jena Malone) who lives a great life with her mother (Mary-Louise Parker) and belongs to the “Christian Jewels,” a group of girls led by Hillary Faye (Mandy Moore.) When her boyfriend tells her he's gay, Mary has a vision from God that tells her to “save” her boyfriend from his sinfulness by offering up her virginity to him. So she does, but she gets knocked up and is soon ostracized by her friends and nearly the whole school. Once she finds herself out in the cold, the other school outcasts: the schools only Jewish student Cassandra (Eva Amurri)and Hillary Faye's smart ass, crippled brother Roland (Macauley Culkin.) And the principle's skater son (Patrick Fugit) tries to win her over.
“Saved!” turned out to be a funny and interesting coming of age story, with the religion take basically taking a back seat to Mary's journey. This type of film could have easily been a disaster, but it avoids the usual pratfalls. It doesn't try to be a “teen” film or try to appease every religious zealot (although it is ultimately pro faith,) it just stuck to it's guns. And it did so with Mary's story, as it is genuinely smart and engrossing. We do care for her and wonder what will happen and it goes about this briskly, so the film does not become boring. An ongoing joke of using Jesus as an excuse were great, and the movie had some great scenes (the first rally, the exorcism.) You also cannot count how many times they say Jesus in this flick. It is in every other sentence.
All of the performances are top notch. Jena Malone conveys all of Mary' struggles very well and doesn't try to hard. I loved Macauley Culkin's cynical Roland. He was razor sharp every time he was on and he didn't annoy me. Patrick Fugit was good with the little screen time he did have. Most notable were Eva Amurri and Mandy Moore. Cassandra could have been a completely irredeemable bitch in the wrong hands, but here she is endearing and relateable. Amurri had me entranced as son as she pulled up in her mess, purple Javelin. And most surprising, Mandy Moore was great as Hillary Faye. She is funny and the real only “villain,” but you enjoy watching her. And she is radical in her beliefs, but you almost feel sorry for her. Good stuff all around. There was an unnecessary subplot featuring a romance between Mary's mom and the school principal that went nowhere and could have easily been dropped. Another unnecessary inclusion was Heather Matarazzo's character. She just annoyed the hell out of me as the Hillary Faye wannabe and seemed to be there to help the plot at one point.
Mary seemed a bit too happy about her pregnancy (as did everybody else) and the ending was a bit on the sappy side. And while the film didn't have any real belly laughs, there were plenty of chuckles, smiles, and giggles throughout by me. But the good outweighed the bad and I had a good time watching “Saved!” Overall it was a sweet coming of age and somewhat dark comedy that hit the spot. For an irreverent and non predictable film starring teens but made for everyone, you can do worse than “Saved!” “Who's down with G-O-D!”
WWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Saved! ***
A dark comedy about religion and young women coming of age, “Saved!” is an entertaining and humorous look into how misguided some overtly religious people can be in their intentions. The focal character is Mary (Jena Malone) who lives a great life with her mother (Mary-Louise Parker) and belongs to the “Christian Jewels,” a group of girls led by Hillary Faye (Mandy Moore.) When her boyfriend tells her he's gay, Mary has a vision from God that tells her to “save” her boyfriend from his sinfulness by offering up her virginity to him. So she does, but she gets knocked up and is soon ostracized by her friends and nearly the whole school. Once she finds herself out in the cold, the other school outcasts: the schools only Jewish student Cassandra (Eva Amurri)and Hillary Faye's smart ass, crippled brother Roland (Macauley Culkin.) And the principle's skater son (Patrick Fugit) tries to win her over.
“Saved!” turned out to be a funny and interesting coming of age story, with the religion take basically taking a back seat to Mary's journey. This type of film could have easily been a disaster, but it avoids the usual pratfalls. It doesn't try to be a “teen” film or try to appease every religious zealot (although it is ultimately pro faith,) it just stuck to it's guns. And it did so with Mary's story, as it is genuinely smart and engrossing. We do care for her and wonder what will happen and it goes about this briskly, so the film does not become boring. An ongoing joke of using Jesus as an excuse were great, and the movie had some great scenes (the first rally, the exorcism.) You also cannot count how many times they say Jesus in this flick. It is in every other sentence.
All of the performances are top notch. Jena Malone conveys all of Mary' struggles very well and doesn't try to hard. I loved Macauley Culkin's cynical Roland. He was razor sharp every time he was on and he didn't annoy me. Patrick Fugit was good with the little screen time he did have. Most notable were Eva Amurri and Mandy Moore. Cassandra could have been a completely irredeemable bitch in the wrong hands, but here she is endearing and relateable. Amurri had me entranced as son as she pulled up in her mess, purple Javelin. And most surprising, Mandy Moore was great as Hillary Faye. She is funny and the real only “villain,” but you enjoy watching her. And she is radical in her beliefs, but you almost feel sorry for her. Good stuff all around. There was an unnecessary subplot featuring a romance between Mary's mom and the school principal that went nowhere and could have easily been dropped. Another unnecessary inclusion was Heather Matarazzo's character. She just annoyed the hell out of me as the Hillary Faye wannabe and seemed to be there to help the plot at one point.
Mary seemed a bit too happy about her pregnancy (as did everybody else) and the ending was a bit on the sappy side. And while the film didn't have any real belly laughs, there were plenty of chuckles, smiles, and giggles throughout by me. But the good outweighed the bad and I had a good time watching “Saved!” Overall it was a sweet coming of age and somewhat dark comedy that hit the spot. For an irreverent and non predictable film starring teens but made for everyone, you can do worse than “Saved!” “Who's down with G-O-D!”
WWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO