Review of To Save a Life (2009) by Shane S — 08 Sep 2011

Yay a Christian movie that actually uses profanity.

And whose humor isn't tacky.

But then again, the story reeks of melodrama in this film. The camerawork isn't too terribly exciting here (sometimes atrocious). The writing is occasionally spotty.

There's really nothing I can say here but that the film has a lot of potential in its cast and crew. Director Brian Baugh, while working from a really cliched script that's already went down the same path many other films have (especially "Heathers" - though in a comical fashion - and "Elephant"), does show quite a bit of competency with his directing. He could use some work on his storyboarding (some of the shots are tacky, including that one drumbeat salvo that seemed so out of place - Amy goes to Planned Parenthood as a sort of gut reaction), but the guy does seem to capture a realism on film. The actors, being trained professionals who are ACTUALLY OPEN TO SWEARING AND PLAY-KISSING (rather than trying to make their acting into a soulless excuse to proselytize), get their job done. You believe, even though a lot of the situations in this film are so friggin' farfetched, that these kids are really kids.

Yeah, it's a cheesy film that falls trap to a strange imbalance, but for the most part, it's a relatively normal production - not to mention that it's really liberal-minded. Take for example Amy's pregnancy and how she tries to deal with it. The film does take a decidedly pro-life position, but it doesn't take it just to be Christian - it's implied that both Amy and Jake are kind of pro-choice, but they opt for adoption. Yeah, they're idiots for having sex (also another great thing about the film - it's willing to show that side of the real world WITHOUT WATERING IT DOWN INTO SOME MADE-FOR-TV MESS), but at least they can go off to college and not act like total idiots. I don't know. At least they made their own decision rather than opting for the opinion of some conservative.

Hey, it's better than Ken Park. Then again, ANYTHING is better than Ken Park nowadays.