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After several delays, Saved! finally hits theaters this Friday, May 28. The movie, depicting life at a Christian high school, stars Mandy Moore, whom Christians embraced a few years ago for her role in A Walk to Remember. But in Saved!, Moore plays Hillary Faye, an overzealous, self-righteous Christian. When her best friend Mary (Jena Malone) gets pregnant, Hillary launches into hellfire-and-brimstone mode, labeling Mary an outcast. Christianity Today Movies critic Stefan Ulstein and his wife, Jeanne, interviewed Saved! writer/director Brian Dannelly—product of a Catholic elementary school, Jewish summer camp, and a Christian High school—at the Seattle International Film Festival. Ulstein, who teaches a film class at nearby Bellevue Christian High School, was joined at the interview by Chelsea Hamilton, a Bellevue senior who, interestingly, thought Dannelly at times "nailed it" in his portrayal of Christian school culture.

Brian Dannelly (L) and others on the set of Saved!

Evangelical Christians are a pretty big group, but in Saved! you don't see that self-referential humor that you often see with Jewish or Catholic films.

Brian Dannelly: It's so funny because that's one of the current arguments that's going on. People are saying, "They should make a film about Jewish people in the same situation and see how they like it," but you know, Jewish people have a sense of humor about themselves. Well, I think Christians do have a sense of humor about themselves. I mean, you can't look at Jan on TBN … the one with the pink hair. I mean, there's stuff that's funny.

How do you expect Christians to react to the movie?

Dannelly: It's really interesting how different factions see it. The Chicago Sun-Times religion writer said the movie is a love letter to faith and it reminds us of how we ought to be. And Jerry Falwell said it's the most hateful movie about Christians that ever came out of Hollywood. Relevant magazine said it was a great movie and a great teaching tool for teens. So, it's the same movie but very, very different perceptions.

How does that affect you when you get attacked by someone like Falwell?

Dannelly: It's funny. A lot of people like it, but Falwell hates it! It doesn't exactly hurt, but you feel disappointed.

Did you test market the film to a particular target audience?

Dannelly: We had religious screenings. We invited anywhere from Buddhists, to Fundamentalists to Catholics.

How was their response?

Mandy Moore, Patrick Fugit, and Dannelly on the set

Dannelly: The Fundamentalists are always the tricky ones. To me, a lot of the movie is about missing the message. Some are saying that Jesus tells Mary [Jena Malone] to have sex with her gay boyfriend, but it doesn't say that in the film. Jesus says, "Dean needs you now. You must do everything you can to help him." They're two very different takes on the film.

I get some flack about Hillary Faye [Mandy Moore] crashing the van into the statue of Jesus, but it's in there for a reason. The kids start the film with this idea of what Jesus is, and at the end of the film they have to kind of tear that down and start over with the new information that they have gotten. When the head of the statue falls off, I wanted to have that moment of Hillary Fay just looking at it. You can think of it as this thing that she has created, or as it [the statue] looking at her saying, "Come on, Girl. Get it together."

[Laughs] I don't know what I was thinking when I made a film about teenagers and religion. But when I was researching it, I went undercover into some Christian teenage chat rooms, and I think I got a more honest sense of what these kids are going through. They go through the same thing everybody else goes through.

(Question from Chelsea Hamilton): As I watched the film, I thought you must have put a lot of your own experience into the film: "How did he do that? He just nailed it!" A lot of it was just how I felt a couple of years ago, before I was reborn in my faith.

Dannelly: Well, thank you. I tried really hard. Everything in the movie, I can tell you why it's there and where it came from. I went to a Christian high school and there was one Jewish girl. And there was one girl who got pregnant, and there was a pastor that was having an affair. But in the movie he doesn't have an affair, they just kiss.

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