"Saved" is, somewhat deceptively, a Christian movie. In the same sense of the word as "Christian rock" or "Christian skaters," both of which are featured in the story. In other words, this is a piece of pop-culture that comes from the world of born-again Christians, that is for them, about them, that affirms their values. The fact that it also witty, sarcastic, soulful and very appealing to the athiests/agnostics among us makes it a first for me: I've never before had a media experience that made the world of born-agains make any sense to me.
I say "deceptively" because of the previews: they were hilarious, and made you think this was a rather cold send-up. Instead, we are shown that that there are many people in the fundamentalist world who are complicated, warm-hearted and whose relationships with JC can eventually sit comfortably with the curveballs life throw at us: figuring out you're gay, getting pregnant in high school, and, especially, dealing with the hypocrisy spouted by self-seeking religious leaders.
The setting is "American Eagle Christian High School" in suburban Baltimore - a drab landscape of dense new housing developments and shopping malls with little to distinguish it visually. Social life is led by Hillary Fay (played superbly by true-life Christian Mandy Moore) who channels all her normal in-crowd cliquey bitchiness through a thin veil of evangelical rhetoric. Which is hilarious! A stand-out scene is when she hurls a bible at the back of a social competitor and screams, "I am FILLED with Christ-love!" Said competitor is the introspective Mary, whose Christianity is quieter, more thoughtful, and given a more equal weight in comparison to her difficult life; she's not afraid to question everything when she finds herself with child. Watching a Christmas play, she wonders whether the first Mary might have made the whole virgin birth thing up; she could see the temptation.
The plot revolves around the school's misfits: a parapalegic, a jewish girl, a skate-punk, Mary and her gay boyfriend, who impregnated her during her campaign to "de-gayify" him over the summer, and was sent to the Mercy House when his parents find gay porn in his room. Their struggles are ever rooted in Christian teachings, which are a source both of friction and of support.
A wise subplot involves a hesitant love affair that develops between Mary's mother and the school principal (played by a fave of mine, Martin Donovan, who was in a bunch of Hal Hartley movies). He is adorably flawed: his genuinely felt religious convictions cause him to stutter through the seduction, scruples always at the ready. And his compulsion to find "black and white" areas in the Bible to guide his administrative decisions is never so fixed that he can't see how grey things are getting before his eyes.
Posted by marstall at June 14, 2004 01:39 AM