Saved! (2004)

I don't really know what to make of this film. It can't be classified as a drama or comedy or Christian film or even as a satire.
Mary (Jena Malone) is a Christian. She begins the film by saying that she has been born again her whole life. She then continues saying that her life is perfect, despite the extremely premature death of her father, but she is about to start her senior year at a great Christian school and she is dating a nice, good Christian boy, Dean (Chad Faust). But then, just two weeks before ending their junior year, Dean drops a bomb on Mary while swimming, he believes that he is gay. Mary is shocked by this, so shocked that she bumps her head on the side of the pool and when the pool maintenance guy jumps in to save her, she believes that she has a vision from Jesus. Mary believes that she must fix Dean; she must make him normal. That is how she spends her summer, slowly working her way up to having sex with Dean. Because she thinks that this is helping Dean, God will then restore her virginity, as she is supposed to wait until marriage. This is only after she has come to terms with the fact that he is truly gay. After all, he is an athlete, as he is a great ice skater. This provided one of the few laughs of the film.
Then school begins again. Mary is at the top of everything; her best friend is the ultra-Christian, Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore) and together, along with another friend, the adopted Veronica (Elizabeth Thai). Tagging along with them is Hilary Faye's disabled brother, Roland (Macauley Culkin), in a wheelchair since he fell out of a tree when he was nine. However, things take a turn for the worse when Dean does not come out of his house. When Mary knocks on his door, she finds out why. His parents answer, inform her that they have found a magazine of gay porn under his bed and immediately sent him away to Mercy House, which fixes people like him.
Mary is devastated, and she swears her friends to secrecy. And thus the school year begins. Nothing much has changed, the pastor, Skip (Martin Donovan) still believes that Jesus will save all from any sins they have committed over the summer, and his son, Patrick (Patrick Fugit) has returned from doing missionary work involving skateboarding. There is still the only Jewish girl at the school, Cassandra Edelstein (an unrecognizable Eva Amurri) who loves causing trouble for Hilary Faye, by smoking and generally not agreeing with anything she has to say.
A few months pass. Mary is watching a lame made-for-TV movie where Valerie Bertenelli is talking about how she was throwing up in the morning, so she takes a home pregnancy test, but she is not pregnant, instead she has cancer. Thus Mary also buys a pregnancy test, but she hopes that it is cancer. Apparently, she would prefer to have a chance to die instead of just having a baby, but then again, she is naive, horribly naive and it doesn't help that she wasn't taught sex education until her senior year of high school. Too little, too late.
As she goes to the Planned Parenthood center, Cassandra and Roland (who is not really Christian, and deep down is a rebel more attracted to Cassandra than anyone else) catch a glimpse of her, causing them to wonder why she is there. Cassandra says that there are only two reasons why she would be there. Roland offers up the pipe bomb reason, and Cassandra just looks at him, and he answers that the pipe bomb is more likely.
Mary begins to question her faith in God, and almost immediately pulls away from the group. When Hilary Faye has a prayer service to pray for Dean's soul, Mary screams at her and causes a whole scene. Later, Hilary and Veronica try to perform an exorcist on her. Needless to say, this does not work. The only person at school who seems to care about Mary is Patrick, but she feels wary about dating him, as Hilary Faye also has her eye on him. She can't even tell Dean about her pregnancy, though he promises that he will be out by Prom, which is just before her due date.
Fast forward to Christmas, Mary has told no one about her pregnancy, and no one, except Cassandra has even guessed. Not even her ultra-Christian interior designer, Lillian (Mary-Louise Parker) doesn't know. Cassandra confronts Mary at the bathroom, literally smoking a cigarette in her face. Mary says that it doesn't bother her. Cassandra then says that she can sell her baby for a lot of money; Mary starts to respond that she can't do that, but doesn't stop in time, Cassandra knows, but she and Roland are both supportive. They help her buy clothes (though they are really from Hilary Faye's stolen credit card). Pastor Skip thinks that they are both troubled and prays for them.
The months continue to pass, and still only Roland and Cassandra know, as the baggy clothes that Mary wears, appear to do the trick. Cassandra and Roland play a mean trick on Hilary Faye. They plaster the school computers with an old picture of her before she became all beautiful. In the meantime, Lillian and Pastor Skip begin a secret relationship, even though he is not yet divorced, because that is a sin, even though they have not seen each other in years.
Hilary Faye is furious about being ousted by her brother and Cassandra and so a new plan is hatched. Upon arriving at American Eagle Christian High School, the school is filled with Jesus and God slurs. Cassandra is immediately expelled because spray paint cans are found in her locker. Mary has it worse. In addition, to spray paint cans as well as her ultrasound pictures. Pastor Skip strongly encourages Lillian to also send her away to Mercy House. He also believes that he and Lillian are being punished because of their affair. Lillian wants to think everything over. Mary, naturally, doesn't want to go.
Then comes prom. Cassandra and Roland arrange everything and even dig up some dirt on Hilary Faye. She was the one who purchased the spray paint. They have purchased a beautiful dress for Mary and have a limo for transportation. Patrick has even shown up because he doesn't care about Mary and had already asked her to prom. They go, and after Hilary Faye creates a scene, they reveal who she really is, but her new friend, Tia (an always underused Heather Matarazzo) unveils the signed receipt which causes Hilary Faye to storm out of the auditorium and crashes her car into the giant banner of Jesus.
In the meantime, Dean finally reemerges from Mercy House, as he and some of the others just ran away. He and his roommate are life partners, and Mary is supportive. He also thinks it is cool that Mary got pregnant on his first time, which I thought was extremely odd. And, of course, Mary goes into labor right on cue. But only one other person is allowed in the ambulance with her, and while Patrick and Dean fight over who it should be, her mother shows up, having a change of heart.
Mary has her baby girl and she is so beautiful, according to Dean. As everyone goes into get a look at the new baby, Mary says that in voice over that how can there not be a God, as she just witnessed a miracle, with her daughter's birth. Pastor Skip shows up in the parking lot, debating on whether he should come in or not.
I liked the idea of the film, but the pregnancy was not focused on and I felt that it should have more of the focus than anything. She barely mentions anything about it, as she doesn't want anyone to know. She does keep her sonogram photo at her school locker because it is safer there than at home, and she does reveal to Cassandra and Roland that she is having a girl. But that is basically it. The viewer never gets any real line or proof what her plans are, though her mother attempts to push adoption. Mary only asks if she was a burden and Lillian insists that she wasn't. However, there is only so much you can fit into a movie which is only an hour and a half. And the film deals with numerous issues, but for the most part only skims the surface of the numerous issues. Still, the film was interesting and contained some good performances. I applaud the effort, but it could have been better. Grade: B