Saved! (2004)

Directed by Brian Dannelly. Starring Jena Malone, Mandy Moore, Eva Amurri, Macaulay Culkin, Patrick Fugit, Mary-Louise Parker, Martin Donovan, Heather Matarazzo, Elizabeth Thai, Chad Faust. [R]

Evangelical Christian high school student Malone gets a harsh dose of reality when she becomes pregnant and her boyfriend comes out as gay, leaving her to question her devout beliefs and friendship with a holier-than-thou hypocrite of a classmate (Moore) who shuns her. Religious satire in a teen movie formula package has some sharp commentary and witty observations (mostly in the first half), but it becomes awfully unfocused and predictable as it goes along. Casts a wide net, touching on anti-choice fervor and conversion therapy “treatment” centers and other hot button topics, but often gets lost in the reeds of its desire to tell a conventional and target-audience-pleasing story of a girl who learns that love and faith are not mutually exclusive within organized religion structures. Benefits from a solid cast, including Macaulay Culkin as Moore’s cynical, handicapped brother, just his second film role after vanishing from the biz for the better part of a decade. Later adapted into a stage musical. R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe co-produced.

59/100