The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015. Remaining movies: 206 Days to go: 144
Movie #232: Saved!
This is a delicate subject, because while I’m not a Christian, I certainly don’t make a habit of lambasting people’s religion in a public forum. There are many things about religion — all religions — that I disagree with, but honestly I’m more of an intellectual debate kind of person than a blind insult kind of person. I do love the movie Saved!, though.
Saved! is definitely a film that aims to skewer Christianity, but not broadly. Saved!‘s target, specifically, is extremist Christianity, fundamentalist — dare I say intolerant — Christianity. And this is a problem everywhere, in every religion, around the world. Everywhere there are Christians — many making up huge chunks of my own beloved family and friends — who are reasonable, rational, loving, generous people who are never on the news spreading hate speech in the name of Jesus or whatever. The same goes for Hindus and Muslims and Jews and Buddhists and every other faith system under the sun. They are kind, accepting people, just trying to live their best lives, and I respect that. But there are other people who maybe do not present the most positive image of their faith, and in Saved!, that person is Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore).
Hilary Faye is nothing more than a Mean Girl in Christian clothing. She’s rude, judgmental, superficial, cares only for herself, and she’s incredibly clique-oriented. She’s even awful to her disabled brother Roland (Macaulay Culkin). Only the cool kids can hang with Hilary Faye, or, if you don’t hang with her, you must be a loser. It’s a very angry, very lonely way to be. Jena Malone plays Mary, Hilary’s best friend, who tries really hard to be a good Christian, though she finds it harder and harder as her senior year goes on. What I love is that as Mary has a crisis of faith and, according to all around her, would be considered a sinner (as she starts to hang out with the other “sinners” at her Christian high school), Mary exhibits more positive traits of Christianity than almost anyone else, save Patrick (Patrick Fugit), the pastor’s son who has a crush on Mary. She’s open and accepting of people who her classmates shun (particularly the wild heathen Cassandra, played by Eva Amurri), she’s not at all hateful of her ex-boyfriend Dean (Chad Faust) who’s been sent away to be cured of his homosexuality, and she’s loving and forgiving of those around her, wishing nobody harm. Not even Hilary Faye.
That’s the key for me, I think. I think if you accept that you’re not perfect — that nobody’s perfect — then you’re much more open to accepting the people around you, faults and all. If you hold yourself to an impossible ideal, on the other hand, you wind up nothing but frustrated with yourself and with everyone else. In the end, Mary finds herself reconciled with her faith — not as Hilary Faye thinks it should be, but with accepting the teachings of Jesus as she knows them and with really striving to live her life as he would. And that’s not a joke at all. It may not be my choice, but it’s certainly one I appreciate.
“So everything that doesn’t fit into some stupid idea of what you think God wants you just try to hide or fix or get rid of? It’s just all too much to live up to. No one fits in one hundred percent of the time. Not even you.”
The movie’s also really sweet and funny, and really wry and funny. When Mary prays for cancer, it’s hilarious on the one hand and cringe-inducing on the other. When her mom (Mary-Louise Parker) realizes she won’t send Mary away because she loves her daughter more than anything (even more than she loves Pastor Skip, played by Martin Donovan), it’s incredibly heartwarming. And it hits just about every other point in between, too. After all, “there’s only one reason Christian girls come down to the Planned Parenthood.” “She’s planting a pipe bomb?” “Okay, two reasons.”
“Why would God make us all different if he wanted us to be the same?”
Viable Option 