Change Your Image
richardgorelick
Reviews
Saved! (2004)
Heartfelt satire
The film festival audience I saw this movie with erupted into an enthusiastic ovation when the movie ended. It's a smart and benevolent movie, and this much is clear about the filmmakers' intentions: they're bighearted. No one in the movie escapes the screenplay's satirical edge but from no one either is there withheld a final, compassionate grace note. Did we mention it's funny, and charming, and full of incisive performances by talented young actors? What most appealed to me were the scenes of characters discovering their better natures and their own capacities for love and compassion. A small moment I loved involving a very minor character, an employee at the fundamentalist high school, who attempts, unsuccessfully, to help Mary hide evidence that would expose her secret. The attempt fails but the effort suggests that the filmmakers don't believe that fundamentalism automatically taints a good heart.