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Saved! is the story of Mary (Jena Malone) a high school senior at a Christian High School in Baltimore who becomes pregnant while trying to “save” the soul of her gay boyfriend. I won’t bother describing the rest of the plot at length, because it’s mostly irrelevant to the film, which is meant to be a series of sharp blows against modern Christianity but instead comes off as a series of faintly-amusing gags designed mostly to pander to the prejudices of a certain sort of people. Mary’s best friend is Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore), the ultra-devout leader of the “Christian Jewels.” Hilary’s brother, Roland (Macaulay Culkin) is a wheelchair-bound cynic who eventually ends up dating Cassandra (Eva Amurri), the school’s only Jewish girl. Patrick Fugit (Almost Famous, White Oleander) plays the son of the school’s principal, who seeks to court Mary.

Some have erroneously charged that Saved! is an anti-Christian film. It isn’t. For the movie to actually be anti-Christian, the producers of the film would have to first figure out what they wish to attack and, second, fire something other than Nerf rounds at it. Rather than an anti-Christian film, what we have is a film which seeks to push its own brand of soft (or “tolerant”) Christianity while, at the same time, projecting their idea of what “intolerant” Christians are like (imagine, for a moment, what a film written by Ann Coulter about the lives of Democrats would look like).

The movie isn’t really a send-up of Evangelical culture as a whole- it’s meant to be a satire of the whole “Christian Youth Group” culture which has sprung up in recent years. The problem here is this: the sort of soft Christianity the film seeks to push (a Christianity sapped of theological content in favor of vague “what would Jesus do”-style blathering) is exactly that favored by most Christian youth, especially the sort who go to the sort of school depicted in the film.

At one moment, fairly early on, the movie begins to show great promise. At an assembly to open the school year, the Principal steps onto stage and begins a routine which encapsulates all the awkwardness of the Christian effort to adapt to popular culture. “Who’s down with G-O-D?” he shouts, in a hilarious moment which should ring absolutely true for anyone who has ever seen a “Christian Rave” or any of the other perverse efforts by some Christians to pander to popular prejudices.

Frankly, the problem is that the movie doesn’t really know where it wants to go from there. A whole movie could be made about the vapid nature of modern Christian youth culture. Instead, however, the producers want to graft their own hatred of the religious right onto these school-aged kids. Anyone who thinks that the sort of kids who walk about in Jesus gear spend their time muttering about “deviants” and such has a clearly distorted view of reality. What could have been a really good satire of the absurdities of things like “Christian” heavy metal instead becomes a heavy handed story which tries to bash you over the head with its generic message (“tolerance is good”).

What saves the film from awfulness is a pair of brilliant performances from Culkin and Amurri. Despite the notable handicap of being Susan Sarandon’s daughter, Eva Amurri is simply radiant here. Her Cassandra is easily the most vibrant character in the entire movie, lighting up the screen whenever she’s on it. The sub-plot of the romance between her and Roland provides the movie with much of its life. Culkin, who’s been largely absent from the screen in recent years, proves here that he has at least a modicum of actual talent.

Jena Malone’s performance here is strong, but both she and Mandy Moore suffer from poorly-written roles. Jena Malone’s Mary is alternately so stupid as to be hard to sympathize with or so boring as to drive one to sleep. Moore’s Hilary is meant to be the evil villainess, but largely comes off as bland and unconvincing. Her final scene, in particular, makes almost no sense whatsoever. The main cause of this particular problem is indecision on the part of the filmmakers- who remain unsure if her character is supposed to be evil or a source of comic relief. The writers would have done well to take a page from Tina Fey’s Mean Girls, where Rachel McAdams turned the character of Regina George into a pitch-perfect villainess.

Saved! isn’t a cause to upset anyone. It’s an average film which, I’d say, will appeal mostly to people who see within it an appeal to their own prejudices.