Saved!

I'm confused as hell by this flick and I don't think I'm supposed to be. It's a comedy, right? Christian high schoolers worrying about your basic teenage problems: friendship, love, sex. Think of any teen comedy and those elements are in this film. But it's also not at all funny in that it touches on how Christians feel about gays, sex before marriage, pregnancy, even cigarette smoke. And while it wraps up those issues with a neat bow at the end, I find it perplexing that this film was marketed so heavily to the Christian audience. Wouldn't a large majority of Christians take offense at 1) all the vague digs at their faith and 2) skipping over most opportunities to really talk about those issues mentioned above? I do think I'm missing the boat. I mean, it is a comedy, and we all should be able to laugh at ourselves. I just felt vaguely uncomfortable throughout the film, like it was trying to be more than it was supposed to be. Or less. Argh! In terms of the acting, Mandy Moore turns out to be a marvel, Jena Malone is, well, Jena Malone (never been a huge fan) and Patrick Fugit is scrumptious. I wish he'd do more, but I'm happy he's sticking with small, script-driven films instead of moving on to big budget stuff, as he could have after he broke out in Almost Famous. Too bad he's just playing the love interest in this film. Too bad we can't figure out what the film was really meant to be.

year: 2004
length: 92 min.
rating: 2.5
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0332375/combined