The best thing about the movie Saved is the wondrous Jena Malone, who's brilliant in just about everything she does but has never gotten a break-out role. Saved is a gentle satire of young fundamentalist Christian teens, with a sentimental but overly-familiar message at its core -- real goodness isn't always found in the dogmatic pronouncements of the self-appointed true believers. Since this was a big part of Jesus's message, you could argue that this is really a Christian film at heart, for all its barbs at the fundamentalist types. It's pretty funny but gets a little too sloppy and preachy at the end.
Malone is probably best known for her role in Donnie Darko but check out her little cameo in Cold Mountain as well -- scary . . .
