Saved! (2004)
The Cast
Jena Malone .... Mary
Mandy Moore .... Hilary Faye
Macaulay Culkin .... Roland
Patrick Fugit .... Patrick
Heather Matarazzo .... Tia
Eva Amurri .... Cassandra
Martin Donovan .... Pastor Skip
Mary-Louise Parker .... Lillian
Now most people that know me, know that I have no time for religiousness & the like. It's not something I'm ever going to apologize for either. Even if I would've been raised that way, I think my faith would've been tested far too many times for me to still harbour a belief. However, I'm still a pseudo-smoker, & that's my crutch. Yes, you read that correctly. I compared religion to smoking. Take that Jebus!
Anyways, I'd heard a buncha good stuff about this movie, & the cast seemed particularily interesting to me, so I thought I'd see what all they hype was about. Let me tell you, from my mouth to god's ear, this is an excellent movie. In some aspects, it's the formula teen high school movie, but with the Jesus quotient kicked up in high gear, yo.
It's like, I dunno, Donnie Darko plus Passion of the Christ minus Bloodsport, with a little bit of She's Having A Baby mixed in. I think. I'm only assuming about those last three. I should get around to that POTC thing. Maybe tomorrow, hopefully Jesus forgives me taking so long to review his End of Days. Maybe a bit link heavy there. Yeah, too link heavy.
This is the first Mandy Moore movie I've ever seen, & I gotta tell ya, I was impressed by her skills. Maybe I should check out her oth... nahh. Not worth my time. Anyways, this is a perfectly excellent movie & I'm glad I waited 'til the end of my Day of Movie Watching to view it. It made me feel good about my place with the lord, which is nowhere. Everyone should watch this movie, especially us heathens, but especially religious folk. Everyone's great in it, & it stars the awesome Jena Malone. What more could you ask for? Whatever it is, ask Jesus for it.
4.5 outta 5, only because at some points the grey area between farce, parody, comedy & drama, was really blurred. Sometimes this movie didn't seem certain of what it was. The Passion of She's All That?
Roger Ebert's review of Saved! (2004)