To Save a Life begins with one that wasn't.
Roger Dawson walks into school, pulls a handgun out of his backpack, points it at his head and pulls the trigger. His life is forever lost.
"Had you ever seen him before?" her friend asks. The first girl shakes her head.
Had you ever seen him before?
Jake had. Jake, the high school basketball star, the beer pong champion, the coolest cat on the quad, had seen him before. It was he who Roger saved from that speeding car, allowing him to pursue basketball, beer pong and popularity. And as he pursued basketball, beer pong and popularity, he gradually stopped being Roger's friend.
Jake was there when Roger killed himself. And now Jake can't help but feel, somehow, responsible.
"You got to let it go, OK?" Jake's girlfriend, Amy, tells him. "It's not your fault."
"Then whose fault is it?" Jake wonders.
Positive Elements
Suicide. Sex. Teen pregnancy. Divorce. Drugs. Cutting. Hypocrisy.
Those aren't the typical things we put at the top of our "Positive Elements" section. And To Save a Life isn't your typical Christian film. It deals with a host of weighty issues--perhaps too many.
But here's the key: It deals with them when some films--including some Christian ones--would rather make light of the topics or turn tail and run.
We're
asked to grapple with this daunting laundry list of problems through
the eyes of Jake--a likable bloke who's finally beginning to wonder
whether there's more to life than just basketball, beer pong and
popularity. Through the gentle guidance of a Christian youth pastor,
Jake tries to come to grips with Roger's suicide. Maybe it wasn't his
fault that Roger killed himself, he concludes. But he might've still
prevented it, had he taken the time.
It's the beginning of a
life transformed. Jake stops drinking and starts going to church. He
takes Jonny--a shy, hurting student--under his wing. When girlfriend Amy
asks Jake to choose between her and his new, church-filled life, he
breaks up with her--only to rally to her side when she admits she's
pregnant with their baby.
To Save a Life provides
Jake with a handful of heroes to help him on his journey. There's
Amanda, the goodhearted girl who helps usher him into the frightening
world of Tuesday-night youth group. There's Chris, the hip youth pastor
who acknowledges that he, too, let Roger down. Even Jonny shows courage
by stepping out of his world and into Jake's youth group--eventually
risking what to him feels like everything to ask Amanda out.
While
the film ends happily enough, it dares to do so with some unanswered
questions: Does Jake reconcile with his cheating father? Will Jake and
Amy get married? Will Jonny and Amanda go on another date after he
seriously blows their first one? We don't know. But the movie tells us
that whatever befalls these folks, they won't have to go it alone.
Spiritual Content
Written by youth pastor Jim Britts of New Song Community Church in Oceanside, Calif., To Save a Life has an unabashedly Christian point of view. It's Chris who first makes a point of talking about faith with Jake by way of a plug-and-play devotional, then by invitations to youth group and one-on-one conversations. Before long, Jake's getting baptized in the Pacific Ocean.Lots of Christian films feature the same general storyline. But To Save a Life zags where many of its peers zig. Rather than the baptism being the story's happy ending, it marks the beginning of Jake's real problems: His father's caught cheating on Jake's mom, leading to divorce proceedings. Amy tells Jake she's pregnant and plans on aborting the baby. Someone else finds out about it and posts hurtful messages all over school.
Wasn't Christianity supposed to make life better?
"Look, God didn't do this to you," Chris tells Jake.
"But He didn't stop it," Jake retorts.
Jake guts it out, though. He decides to talk to Amy again, making sure she knows that if she decides to keep their child, she won't be doing it alone: He'll stick with her--even though it could mean giving up his treasured basketball scholarship to Louisville. "God, please," he prays. "Just give me the strength to do what's right."
That feels pretty real to me. But it's not just real, it's responsible. To Save a Life doesn't show dirt to get dirty, it shows it so you'll notice the paper towel that can clean it up.
Thanks to Jake's influence, Amy doesn't abort their baby.
And we're made to understand that while it might be real, it's also wrong for the pastor's son, Danny, to spread rumors and marijuana with equal aplomb. Chris' youth group, it's suggested, is loaded with hypocritical, disinterested kids. But we also see them care for one another. And Chris admits that he botched his own chance to save Roger. But we see from his interactions with Jake that he's not about to do it again.
When the church's senior pastor comes close to kicking Jake out for getting a girl pregnant, Chris comes to the boy's defense. "You judge this kid but you haven't bothered to get to know him," Chris tells the pastor. "Jake Taylor should be teaching us what it means to follow God."
And that's what this movie struggles to do, too--teach us what it means to follow God.
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Source: Pluggedin Movie Reviews
