7/14/04 "Saved!"

I'd been waiting to see this movie for a long long time, and I almost didn't see it in the theaters because it really wasn't playing anywhere local. But CJ and I decided to push and headed all the way out to the Hollywood Hits Discount Theater, which is a rip off, because it's really not that discounted at all. Hanover is much cheaper. BEWARE THE HOLY SPOILERS.

7-14-04 "Saved!"

Notes from the Red Book

trailers-"Mean Girls", "Napolean Dynamite"

CJs excited
abortion clinic scene kinda wrong
ok, short shorts like those would NOT be allowed
Emmanuel shooting range-"An eye for and eye"
your differently-ableness
Mandy is very...militant....reminds me of.....hmmmmm
"Let's get our CHRIST on!"
"We're gonna kick it Jesus-style!" (oh! STOLEN from DCTalk!)
"Are you DOWN with G-O-D?"
internal prayer monologues
I like Pastor Skip...what's the catch.
"It's all about population of the planet, and don't get jiggy with it until you're married."
"Not born a gay, born again."
"No, I was thinking something a little less gangsta."
Exorcist theme! Classic!
"Last year I got saved so I could go on the ski trip."
gold loincloth....ugh
"It is not cool in the eyes of God"
Huh...she lost her halo.
Looks like Skip's had a rough night.

Ok. Ok. This review is going to an interesting one to write, and I have to gear myself up for it. Ok. All right, first off, to anyone who doesn't know, I'm a born-again Christian. Yes, I am proud to admit it, it changed my life and I am happy to be one. That being said, I amso glad I went to see this movie, even though every Christian south of the Mason-Dixon line was running around screaming about how awful it was. I thought this was a fantastic movie. But let me recap the movie first, before I start in on what I thought.

This movie is about a Christian girl named Mary, played by Jena Malone, who became a Christian when she was three, and was raised in a Christian home. She has the perfect Christian boyfriend, and the perfect Christian friends, and is about to start her perfect senior year at a Christian high school. Then she finds out her boyfriend is gay. So she decides to try and "de-gayify" him by having sex with him. It doesn't work, Mary ends up pregnant, and her boyfriend, Dean, gets sent to a half-way house. Mary can't understand why God would mess up her life like this, and soon her perfect Christian friends are ostracizing her because she is suffering from a crisis of faith. She is also trying to hide her pregnancy. She finds help from the school outcasts, one of which is wheelchair bound Roland (Macaulay Culkin), who happens to be the brother of Hillary Faye (Mandy Moore), Mary's former best friend. He also happens to be an athiest. The other is Cassandra, the only Jewish kid in the entire school. Mary also finds a new boyfriend in Patrick, the skateboarding son of the school's hip principal, Pastor Skip. Eventually, her pregnancy becomes known, and Mary and her new friends must find a way to stay in school and end the year well.

They acting was fabulous in this movie. It was the first time I'd seen Macaulay Culkin in anything in years, and he did a great job, meaning, I forgot I was watching Mac, I was so absorbed in his character. Jena Malone I had seen a few times before in things like Contact and Stepmom, and this was a real stretch for her. Glad to say, she stretched well. Mandy Moore did a Jekyll and Hyde thing from her performance in A Walk to Remember, and it was just eerie. I mean, she was CREEPY. The script was well written, someone had obviously done their homework. But, the main problem I had with this movie I have heard echoed by other Christian movie reviewers...there was no balance. All we saw were "bad" Christians. The only ones who showed Mary love were the Jewish kid and the athiest kid. I really wish we had seen a strong, loving, Christian-we're not all bad!

I will be the first to admit I am not the perfect Christian. Is there such a thing? I mean, we all make mistakes. But the Christians in the movie were portrayed as more akin to Pharisees and hypocrites. More about giving off an Christian look, than about acting as a true Christian would, out of love. That was the main argument CJ and I both had. I lost count of how many times we turned to each other and said, well, I would have done it this way, or I would have said this, or acted this way. But who can say until we're put in the position? I like to think I would have acted a certain way. I mean, I've never bombed an abortion clinic. I have friends who are Jewish, athiest, what have you and that doesn't mean I can't be friends with them because they believe a different thing than I do. I certainly wouldn't bar them from my life. Unless they were Satanist, that I would have a problem with. But I'm digressing all over myself.
I tried to put myself into the character's shoes. I'm a youth leader at my church, and if I had found out one of my teens was gay, and another one was pregnant because of trying to "help" him...it would be a problem, yes. I'm sure I know of some teens who would act the same way as Hillary Faye put in the situation. As a matter of fact, Hillary Faye reminded me so strongly of someone I know, it kinda freaked me out.

As a Christian, I believe that making a decision to ask Christ for forgiveness for the wrong things in your life and following his teachings is an important one. But this belief has become so politically incorrect, I am not as forward with my beliefs as I should be. I will willingly share them with anyone, and most, if not all of my friends know of my Christian beliefs. If you want to know more, I will gladly tell you. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that many Christians live in a bubble, with their Christian music and their Christian friends, their Christian T shirts and their Christian movies. What they don't realize is that they're never gonna reach anyone unless they come out of the bubble! The large majority of people are not going to come to the bubble on their own, so we have to leave the bubble to come to them. That was the mistake Hillary Faye made. She was so stuck in the bubble, so stubborn about leaving, that she was really building walls to keep her people in and everyone else out.

People have said this movie promotes tolerance. It does. Do I agree with tolerance? To a degree. I will tolerate things, but I will not condone them. For example, I tolerate abortion because it is legal and I must. But I do NOT agree with it in any way shape or form, for several reasons, one of which being I think there are too many childless couples to waste human life like that. BUT...I also understand that not everyone in this world has a Christian viewpoint, and I cannot force them to believe like I do...only explain to them WHY I believe what I do. I leave the decisions on what to decide up to them. It's like what I do with teens...I offer counsel, give examples from my own experience, and I'm not afraid to say I don't know if I DON'T know. But I do offer to help them find answers. And I pray, which helps a great deal more than some would think.

Wow...that was a lot more than I planned to say. Anyway. It was a great movie, I really liked it. It's the kind of movie I would LOVE to show on movie night at my church...but probably couldn't get away with it. But see it, by all means. You might discover something more about yourself....and those "crazy fundamentalist whacko Christians". And the gospel was shared...sorta!

Until the next time this is Sarah saying, "I crashed my LIFE into JESUS!"