To me, this movie is perfection.

Such a frustrating disappointment

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Released a few months before 'Mean Girls', though frequently compared against it, this Canadian comedy involves a girl at a devout Christian high school who begins to associate with the social outcasts after circumstances cause her to realise how shallow her previous friends were. And her situation could hardly be more zany; after her boyfriend confesses that he is gay, she has a vision and comes to believe that Jesus wants her to sleep with him in order to turn him straight, however, all this leads to is his parents shipping him off to a religious institution for treatment, while she ends us pregnant. Quirks along the way include her old friends subjecting to her an exorcism (!) - set to the music from 'The Exorcist' no less - after they notice her acting differently, and a wheelchair-bound Macaulay Culkin frequently poking fun at his condition. The film does not manage to sustain this zaniness throughout with the final act coming off as rather preachy; the results of all the pranks that go on are a little easy to predict too. For the most part though, this is an amusing teen comedy, very much propped up by the unusual choice to set it inside a very exclusive Christian school where 'saving' another person's soul is the most exciting thing that many of the teens dreams of. Jena Malone is (as always) great in the lead role and her voice-over narration is excellent too.

This is an entertaining movie, but so skewed that it can only be viewed with a greatly jaundiced eye. There is a lot I could talk about, but I will focus on the most egregious transgressions: that cigarette smoking is indeed "cool", the mark of a true rebel, and getting someone hooked on cigarettes is the beginning of a beautiful relationship; that poor behaviour and lack of respect for the rights of others is okay if you disagree with them and deem them "uptight"; that it is okay to publicly humiliate someone with images of themselves as fat ("snort, snort") loser wannabees if they have it coming. Some very ugly messages that rise to the top of what could have been an intelligent and insightful examination of morays and social conventions. A very lazy attempt.

The teen movie plot is such a well-honed machine that all it really needs is a fresh, interesting coat of paint -- in this case the extremely-Christian subculture -- in order to create something that seems fresh. Saved! is a movie that's almost impossible to dislike, brimming with charm and humour and maybe even a bit of intelligence.All of the performances here are pretty good, but most of all the film makes excellent use of stunt-casting. Mandy Moore's character here is basically a parody of every other Mandy Moore character, and it's fantastic. Macauley Culkin is also pretty fun as her sardonic wheelchair-bound brother. All of the characters shine as comic inventions, with the possible exception of Mary's fine-but-unnecessary love interest, a played-straight cool Christian skateboarder.The social commentary is nothing you wouldn't hear at the dinner table of every loyal Democrat, which makes it annoying when Saved! tries to pass itself off as edgy or subversive. This especially becomes overbearing during the climax, which is dedicated to hammering its point home over and over again. But while this is irritating, I don't really remember it when I think of this movie. Instead I think of the fun set pieces, the light humour, and a well-wasted afternoon.

In a Protestant Christian school, the fanatic and wealthy Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore) and Mary are best friends. Their friendship ends when Mary gets pregnant, after having sex with her gay boyfriend trying to "save" him, and questions Jesus' will. Meanwhile, the rebel Jewish Cassandra dates Hilary's brother, the crippled Roland (Macaulay Culkin), and together with the newcomer son of the local pastor, Patrick, they become the new friends of Mary, supporting her situation.There are other issues, such as the idea of de-gayification, and we see at least one obvious picture of George W. Bush (which reminds me of the film "Jesus Camp").What drew me to this film originally (I stayed because it's a good movie) are the two leading ladies. This film treats us to Mandy Moore's nipples... no bra? It must be cold in Vancouver... though, she could have cut the mullet. And I used to have a crush on Jena Malone, but I'm not sure why... must be a "Donnie Darko" thing.I strongly urge people to get the DVD of this film. It comes with two commentaries. One is a Jena Malone and Mandy Moore commentary, which is very much girl chatter, but has interesting tidbits: like, we find out that Mandy is a good shot. Cassandra is "not smoking real cigarettes" -- but what are they? And we hear more about the film's music, notably "Whoomp" and the "Exorcist" theme.I didn't listen to the other commentary (yet).