Saved! [Blu-ray]

Director: Brian Dannelly Brian Dannelly

Overview

Mary (Jena Malone) is entering her senior year at American Eagle Christian High School. She seems to be in an ideal social position as one of the "Christian Jewels," the most devout and popular clique of girls in the school, led by the aggressively cheerful Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore). But things take an unexpected turn when Mary's boyfriend, Dean (Chad Faust), tells her he may be gay. Mary hits her head and has a vision, in which Jesus tells her how to help "cure" Dean of his unnatural urges. Mary does everything in her power to sway Dean, but when his parents find out about his "problem," they send him away just before the school year starts, leaving Mary alone, confused, and, she soon finds out, pregnant. Mary's new situation causes her to question everything, including her friendship with the judgmental Hilary Faye and her faith. Her mother (Mary-Louise Parker) is too preoccupied with her flirtatious relationship with the school's married principal, Pastor Skip (Martin Donovan), to notice Mary's problem. Pastor Skip's dreamboat skateboarder son, Patrick (Patrick Fugit), has returned from missionary work and is attracted to Mary, but she already has too much to deal with. Just when she thinks her situation is hopeless, she finds a pair of unlikely allies in Hilary Faye's cynical wheelchair-bound brother, Roland (Macaulay Culkin), and wild, muscle car-driving provocateur Cassandra Edelstein (Eva Amurri), the school's only Jewish student. Saved! marks the feature debut of director Brian Dannelly, who co-wrote the script with Michael Urban.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/16/2016
UPC:	0887090125710
Original Release:	2003
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	Olive
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound]
Language:	English
Time:	1:33:00
Sales rank:	13,127

Special Features

"Heaven Help Us" featurette; "Saved! Revelations" featurette; Audio commentary with Brina Dannelly (co-writer and director), Sandy Stern (producer) and Michael Urban (producer); Audio commentary with Mandy Moore and Jena Malone

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Jena Malone	Mary
Mandy Moore	Hilary Faye
Elizabeth Thai	Veronica
Macaulay Culkin	Roland
Patrick Fugit	Patrick
Heather Matarazzo	Tia
Eva Amurri	Cassandra
Chad Faust	Dean
Martin Donovan	Pastor Skip
Mary-Louise Parker	Lillian
Kett Turton	Mitch
Julia Arkos	PE Coach
Donna White	Trudy Mason
James Caldwell	Hairdresser
Nicki Clyne	Guitar Player
Aaron Douglas	Paramedic
Patricia Drake	Dean's Mother
Brent Fidler	Church Man
Jay Hilliker	Waiter/Host
John Innes	Pastor
Greg Kean	Dean's Father
Joe MacLeod	Lead Singer
Althea McAdam	Church Wife
Thomas Plustwik	Carpenter/Jesus
Syndie Skeeles	3-Year-Old Mary
Susan Wilkey	Pink Bouffant Lady
Valerie Bertinelli	Herself

Technical Credits

Brian Dannelly

Michael Urban

Brian Dannelly	Director,Screenwriter
Michael Urban	Screenwriter
Scott Ateah	Stunts
Heike Brandstatter	Casting
Garvin Cross	Stunts
Rory Cutler	Special Effects
Kaye Dyal	Executive Producer
Steven Gagnon	Executive Producer
Coreen Mayrs	Casting
Michael Ohoven	Producer
David Prybil	Executive Producer
Kerry Rock	Executive Producer
Sandy Stern	Producer
Michael Stipe	Producer
William Vince	Producer
Owen Walstrom	Stunts
Eric Batut	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Too timid to be truly subversive, Saved! is saved from being a middling high-school comedy by first-time writer/director Brian Dannelly's light pop touch and a superb ensemble cast. Jena Malone, an intelligent young actress, provides the solid center of the film. The film satirizes a kind of deceptively cheerful, youth-oriented brand of evangelical Christianity, as personified by Pastor Skip (Martin Donovan), who exhorts his receptive teenage audience with, "Let's get our Jesus on," and "Let's kick it, Jesus-style." In the wrong hands, the pastor could be a crude caricature, but the skilled Donovan gives him a surprisingly touching humanity. The problem with Skip and Mary's (Jena Malone) bouncy nemesis, Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore), is not their religious devotion, but their inability to reconcile their faith with their own human failings. Hilary Faye takes tremendous pride in loving Jesus more than anyone else. Roland (Macaulay Culkin), her wheelchair-bound older brother, is like a badge of her own self-sacrificing goodness, and she's oblivious to the fact that he resents her "charity." The unfortunate Roland is relegated to background noise by Hilary Faye and her crowd, while his love interest, Cassandra (Eva Amurri), whom Mary describes as "the only Jewish" in their school, must be brought into the light. The ragingly profane Cassandra is a showy role for Amurri, who invests her with grit and heart. Patrick Fugit is coolly charismatic as Mary's devout but open-minded and goodhearted love object. The climactic prom scene is sloppily overextended, and Saved! sometimes falls flat, as in its misfired exposure of Hilary Faye's secret past. There's certainly a topical edge to the film, but the satirical barbs don't always draw blood because the filmmakers are perhaps too careful to couch their critique of hypocritical piety in a mild but appealing comedy of acceptance.

All Movie Guide - Josh Ralske

By the end of the movie, mainstream Christian values have not been overthrown, but demonstrated and embraced. Those who think Christianity is just a matter of enforcing their rulebook have been, well, enlightened. And that all of this takes place in a sassy and smart teenage comedy is, well, a miracle.

Chicago Sun-Times - Roger Ebert

Saved! is the audacious feel-good satire of 2004.

Baltimore Sun - Michael Sragow

Not only is Saved! subversively funny, it is unexpectedly sweet.

USA Today - Claudia Puig