Saved! Movie Review:


It’s a teen comedy but not as we know it, or is it?

Saved! Tells the tale of Mary, a kid who attends a high school where they are more than a little bit obsessed with G-O-D. Is she a virgin? In a movie that satirises certain parts of America’s religious fixation, I think that’s a definite. Things are all well in this world until poor Mary’s boyfriend reveals he’s gay, then all hell breaks loose.

And on a mission to satirise the world of TV evangelists and Christian Middle America we go. With acid dialogue and zinging one-liners that attacks every aspect of the holier than thou culture. Such as Christian Skateboarders, disabled kids being “differently-abled” or the teacher who tries to be down with the kids by using rap.

And it’s all a rather lot of fun, as for the first half of the movie the gags are flying thick and fast, making lots of great points about the absurdity of those who think their beliefs are right, and damnation for those who don’t agree with them.

Mandy Moore puts in a superb performance, that utterly destroys her teen queen image as the most holier than thou of the kids, but I do wonder if her agent got her part re-written as her character really did deserve a much harsher ending. Patrick Fugit once again disappoints, once again not veering far from his Almost Famous persona. Loved seeing Macaulay Culkin in a wheelchair, as well as Jena Malone’s central role that holds the whole movie together.

The movie does use every single trick in the teen movie repertoire, coming on as a cross between Clueless, Breakfast Club, every teen movie you’ve ever seen, oh and Heathers. Ok, it’s not as nearly as jet-black as Heathers was. Instead reigning back in from the edge near the end, with a much too nice wrap up. Ok, it was following the teen movie rules in doing that, but as the movie itself says we don’t all have to do/be the same in God’s eyes.

Gary Gray

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