"Yeah, I have this much money left from Home Alone. Trust fund my ass."

Saved! is possibly the most earnest satire in the history of film. (You know, I should probably avoid sweeping statements like that because as soon as I post this I’m going to come up with a long list of earnest satires, but I’m trying to make a point here.) Set at a Christian high school, it seeks to poke fun at the hypocrisy and smugness of the religious right and to perform the more difficult trick of making us sympathize with its characters, even those it’s just ridiculed.

Jena Malone (who, by law, must appear in every independent film featuring a teenaged girl; for other age groups see Parker Posey and Patricia Clarkson*) plays Mary, second most popular girl in school. When her boyfriend Dean confesses that he thinks he’s gay, Mary decides to save him by offering up her virginity. Take it from me, that NEVER works, or, uh, so I hear. Anyway, Dean is sent off to a Christian youth center for “degayification” and Mary soon realizes that she’s pregnant. Disillusioned, she starts to question the faith and values she’s always been so secure in.

But questions don’t sit well with her best friend Hilary Faye, (Mandy Moore) the most popular and pious girl in school. At first she wants to rededicate Mary to the Lord, by force if necessary, but when that fails she settles for shunning and mocking her, a tactic that I’m sure was in the Sermon on the Mount somewhere.

You know what? Enough with the plot. Here’s what I liked about Saved!

• Funny! Sample dialogue: “There’s only one reason why a Christian girl comes downtown to the Planned Parenthood.” “She’s planting a pipe bomb?” Ooh, burn!
• The actors. There’s a reason Jena Malone is in so many movies; she’s a really talented actress who’s always played fragile/preternaturally wise well. I’ve liked her ever since she played the young Jodie Foster in Contact, and I think her career could survive the transition from childhood to adulthood in a Jodie-esque way. Mandy Moore does a creditable job as the alternately sugary and shrill Hilary Faye, making her sharp and mostly detestable, but with a hint of vulnerability. I also liked Mary-Louise Parker as Mary’s clueless, overwhelmed mother, and Martin Donovan as the hip principal, Pastor Skip, who likes to liven up assemblies with phrases like, “We’re kickin’ it Jesus-style.” Oh, and Macaulay Culkin! He has a way to go, but it’s a better performance than I expected from the Home Alone kid. 
• The way it manages to skewer the worst aspects of religious dogmatism and hypocrisy without mocking faith itself. The movie acknowledges that most people of faith are sincere in their beliefs, but that the answers aren’t as pat as many of the characters believe, that the big questions are hard to figure out and that the best way to start is with compassion. Hard to argue with that.

Not fooling anyone with those wings.

So, okay, Saved! drags a bit around the end of the second act. And its “I’m okay, you’re okay” message comes off as kind of simplistic, especially as writer/director Brian Dannelly beats us about the head with it. I know a lot of critics wish that Saved! was sharper in its satire, but I don’t know. I kind of like its blunt edges. Sometimes satire can get its point across without making us bleed in the process.

* If Clarkson is unavailable, Tilda Swinton may be substituted; no refunds or rain checks will be issued. Some restrictions apply.

Gorilla Pants rating: 3 out of 4 bananas