Edition: U.S. / Global  Retract Claws, Turn Other Cheek
Published: May 23, 2004  MICHAEL URBAN and Brian Dannelly
started writing ''Saved!'' when they were students at the
American Film Institute in 1998. By the time it went into
production in 2002, the film -- one part bittersweet religious
satire and one part rite-of-passage teen movie -- had acquired a
veritable congregation of young, indie-Hollywood talent. Set at
a Christian high school, it stars Jena Malone as the born-again
Mary, a 17-year-old who becomes pregnant after Jesus appears to
her in a swimming pool and instructs her to have sex with her
gay boyfriend. Mr. Dannelly, who directed, also enlisted Patrick
Fugit, Macaulay Culkin, Heather Matarazzo and -- playing against
type as the insincere leader of the Christian Jewels, the high
school's equivalent of a girl gang -- the former teen-pop star
Mandy Moore.  ''Saved!'' (opening Friday) is not without claws.
But it is ultimately a movie with a gentle and universal point
to make: spiritual perfectio