Grade: B

Verdict: A sharp satire/teen movie about religious hypocrisy.

By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
Cox News Service

Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell would love Mary (Jena Malone). An exemplary student at American Eagle Christian High, she's proud of being born-again almost all her life.

"Accepting Jesus into your life at age 3 is a big decision," she solemnly informs us.

But in the sharp new teen comedy "Saved!" nothing -- and no one -- is as squeaky clean as it seems. Yes, Mary is everything a televangelist would want in a teenager, except ... she's pregnant.

She got that way by trying to do God's work. When her boyfriend, Dean (Chad Faust), confessed he's gay, she valiantly gave up her virginity in hopes of saving him from the gay bar in eternal Hell.

But God works in mysterious ways. When Dean's parents discover his, um, affliction, he's shipped off to a Christian institute for "de-gayification." Meanwhile, Mary's sneaking off to Planned Parenthood to seek advice, not plant a pipe bomb.

Mary's best friends, who call themselves the Christian Jewels, are led by the impossibly chirpy, annoyingly smug and excruciatingly blissed-out Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore). At first, they have no idea of Mary's delicate condition. They just think she's acting strangely (read: deprogrammed). And they're not happy about it.

"Saved!" isn't out to skewer religion. It's out to skewer religious hypocrisy, a rich topic that's been targeted by writers for centuries. Think of Moliére's "Tartuffe."

Hilary Faye uses her faith to bludgeon anyone who disagrees with her or anyone she doesn't think "believes" in the right way (hers). Frustrated with the increasingly odd Mary, Hilary Faye hurls a Bible at the back of her head and screams, "I am filled with God's love."

The movie is careful to show that not everybody at American Eagle is a Hilary Faye-style fake. Patrick (Patrick Fugit, "Almost Famous") is a conservative Christian in many ways -- one who's not only a cool-kid skateboarder but is strong enough in his faith not to feel compelled to impose it on others.

In truth, the film respects religion, even a deeply conservative version -- something you don't often see on-screen. For instance, abortion is never an issue here -- as it would be in most Hollywood movies -- because, for someone like Mary, it just isn't a viable option. And the script doesn't jeer at her for not considering it.

As so often happens in cinematic satires, the last few scenes become overblown and not nearly as clever as what has preceded them. It all happens -- where else? -- at the prom, where things get out of hand and over-the-top in time-honored teen-movie fashion. Which is too bad since so much of "Saved!" is so savagely pointed, much more so than the recent "Mean Girls" or its 1989 inspiration, "Heathers."

Moore and Malone carry the movie, and both are terrific. Malone has the open-faced yet funny vibe of a less cleavage-conscious Lindsay Lohan, while Moore gleefully trashes her good-girl image by making Hilary Faye a demonically whacked-out Jesus freak.

They get excellent support from Mary-Louise Parker, who plays Mary's mom, voted the No. 1 Christian interior decorator in the country; Eva Amurri (Susan Sarandon's daughter) as the school's unlikeliest student (she's Jewish); and Martin Donovan as Pastor Skip, who is so desperate to be down with the kids, he front-flips onstage for the year's first assembly and shouts out, "Give it up for the Lord Jesus!"

Perhaps the nicest surprise is Macaulay Culkin as MooreÕs wheelchair-bound brother. He treats his God-addled sister with just the right tone of sarcasm mixed with head-shaking disbelief. To him, she's not a Jesus freak; she's a freak, period. And in "Saved!" Culkin proves he's not a child actor; he's an actor, period.