Dir. Brian Dannelly, 2004, USA , 92 mins
Cast:
Jena Malone, Macaulay Culkin
With the notable exception of Robert Duvall's superb film The Apostle, mainstream cinema has - for the most part - taken a fairly cynical stance in the depiction of modern Christians and Christianity on-screen. As western culture's dominant faith, Chris tianity takes an inevitable beating, usually as a convenient cinematic device for the embodiment of oppression, blind conformity or duplicitous fraud. Portraying Chris tians on film as narrow minded, repressed and ignorant is like shooting fish in a barrel. Refreshingly, German born, US based writer/director Dannelly has (mostly) avoided the inevitable slide into two-dimensionality; presenting an original, fresh and slightly off-beat view of teenage angst and general malaise at a US Chris tian high school.
Mary (Donnie Darko's Jena Malone) lives a fairly contented life with her divorced mother Lillian (Mary-Louise Parker), dating her all-round wholesome boyfriend Dean (Chad Faust) and attending the local Chris tian high-school. Cracks soon appear in the veneer of her life when Dean admits to her that he's gay. Convinced, after a bizarre religious vision arising from a pool-side head injury, that Jesus wants her to have sex with Dean in order to "turn him straight". Mary goes against her heartfelt belief of abstinence and with the most naive of intentions, has sex with Dean and in the process becomes pregnant. Dean is shipped off to 'Mercy House', an enigmatic depository for wayward teenage Christians who can't or won't conform. Once it's learned that her boyfriend is gay, Mary becomes the subject of school scuttlebutt. Her increasing disillusionment with her faith causes Mary to become withdrawn and cynical. Confused, hurt and still concealing the news of her pregnancy, she is befriended by Patrick (Patrick Fugit) the eminently cool member of the school skateboard team and target of the school female population's affections. At the same time, star pupil and class presidential candidate, Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore) a judgmental and elitist Christian, becomes incensed at Mary's apparent disillusionment with God and sets about trying to forcibly "save" her from damnation.
As a self-imposed outsider at the school, Mary soon falls in with chain-smoking non-conformist Cassandra (Eva Amurri). Cassandra's utter indifference to her peers also attracts the affections of Roland (Culkin) - Hilary Faye's dry witted and cynical paraplegic brother. Soon the trio of misfits educate each other on the value of tolerance, friendship and understanding and the role of spirituality and faith in our lives as a vital and personal thing.
Jena Malone's sweet natured performance as the well-meaning Mary is one of the films major assets. Her doe-eyed innocence prevents the film from plummeting into parody, although at times it does teeter on the edge. Culkin is engaging as the pessimistic Roland, as is Eva Amurri as the outrageously attitudinal Cassandra. Martin Donovan is also a joy as the desperately hip school Principal, Pastor Skip.
Like Malone, Donovan's performance lends credibility to the film. However it's Mandy Moore that is definitely the major detractor, her manic portrayal of fascist fundamentalist Hilary Faye is so cartoonish and unbelievable it threatens to undo the entire film, her performance is a by-the-numbers, ramped-up rehash of the kinds of social climbing, psychotically ambitious but slightly air-headed characters created by Reese Witherspoon in such films as Election and Legally Blonde .
Working with Producer Michael Stipe (of R.E.M fame), writer/director Dannelly and writer Michael Urban have crafted a sweet and affectionate semi- autobiographical portrayal of life as a Christian teenager and the insular world that exists within it. Despite the film's formulaic elements, contemporary Christian culture is depicted with a fairly even-handed realism and ultimately it's a story about the true values of Christianity: love, compassion and forgiveness.
Jarrod Walker
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