Shadow Reviews #17: To Save a Life (2009)

Instructions

My Review: ⭐⭐⭐ So my friend loans me a copy of To Save A Life like last Sunday. Surprisingly, my mom – who’s skeptical of PG-13 films even though I’m 16 – agreed and said we would watch it as a family. Of course, we never did, this was to be expected. Well, anyway, my church holds an all-nighter lock in special event for the youth group – think of it like a Christian sleepover but nobody sleeps – where we stayed up from 6:30 PM on Friday to 8:00 AM on Saturday. Very interesting experience, but to pass the time, our leader decided to play To Save a Life on the big screen – which is a great coincidence considering how my friend had loaned it a week ago. It was a pleasant surprise – plus I wouldn’t have to worry about my mom approving of the movie or not – and that’s essentially the story of HOW I watched this film. Anyway, before I discuss the film, I want to note something. I don’t support all the ideas presented in the film. Yes, I am a Christian, but I’m a closeted liberal Christian. And this movie has a lot of conservative Christian ideals – some of which I cannot talk about here. In fact, if there’s ever been a movie that deserves the 13+ warning, I’d honestly say this is the one. In other words, he plot’s not entirely Scratch-friendly, so I can’t talk about it all. But if I were to judge this movie by its viewpoints, I would be committing a critic’s sin; that is, judging a movie by your own opinions of its opinions – which is problematic. I believe a critic should analyze the movie from the perspective of the filmmaker – even if they disagree on some controversial issues. Otherwise, this would be an easy 2 stars, maybe 1 star. But I will judge the movie based on how effectively it portrays the case for its ideas – its argument, might I say. This does NOT mean I agree with the filmmaker; it simply means I take a moment in their shoes. And now, we begin. The acting was pretty good. I don’t know any of these actors, but apparently the jock friend of the main character was Brain in Arthur – that’s a nice childhood remainder. They played their dramatic roles well and they did seem mostly believable; it’s a pretty gritty script and from the viewpoint of the filmmaker, the public high school world is a rough place. And frankly, it is. Jack and his girlfriend were characters that definitely had a defined character arc; they grew throughout the movie and they didn’t stay stagnant. Also, Johnny is such a relatable character. The plot was captivating; I’ll give it that. Not entirely realistic, but then again, what movie plot is. If it kept me interested for around 2 hours, that’s a good plot. It certainly was dark, yet it shined with hope. A religious hope, granted, but that’s the goal of the movie, and I could see a variety of reactions to one watching this film. When I watched it, it moved others to tears. That is power. That is absolute cinema. However, the climax was a very sudden plot device that just seemed to be tossed in at the end. There was very little foreshadowing outside of Johnny’s sketchbook and it felt like the third act was just a checklist of issues that needed to be resolved. Yes, that’s how most third acts are structured, but it lost a lot of the emotional journeys created throughout the runtime. It wasn’t exactly a thrilling last 30 minutes, but it was passable. The cinematography sucked – at least for the first 15 minutes. Too many 2000s films thought it was acceptable to use excessive flashback, slow motion, and blur to create a visually captivating film. There were a few clever tricks later on in the movie (particularly, they shot that one scene well without being too… er revealing) but groundbreaking cinematography wasn’t on the agenda for the filmmakers. It wasn’t ugly, but it wasn’t anything interesting either. One last thing: a major reason this movie doesn’t have 4 stars is because they used a word that I honestly don’t think is okay. It’s pretty offensive to women and it just didn’t settle well with me. I CANNOT put it here, but uh, you might be able to guess. I don’t know, I get the context and the attempt at realism, but maybe I’m too sensitive. Maybe this movie wasn’t made for me exactly. If you are a Christian – specifically an evangelical Protestant probably – this movie might be a masterpiece. If you aren’t, it might be a mildly interesting drama that’s at least worth one watch. It’s not a bad movie, but I don’t know if I recommend it. It is what it is, I guess. What I watched it on: THE BIG SCREEN (a projector) Other critics: Rotten Tomatoes: 41% Metacritic: 19% (that sounds bad, so I'm guessing "generally unfavorable)