Main Review
The majority of films that come out these days release with the goal of a few things. To entertain and to make money. In my
opinion, there are far too many films out there that do not entertain, and are basically a waste of money. Add that those aspects
to the demand of films laced with even more violence, sexual content and language and you have films that nowadays are
referred to as ‘the norm’ in Hollywood. Personally, it makes me sick. I tire of films that in my opinion have no moral values, no
message and often times influence and promote immorality, violence and other forms of sin. Unfortunately, those types of
films are being more and more accepted, even in Christian circles, as acceptable, with some even being nominated for big
awards like the Oscars or the Golden Globes.
That’s where I see the new film To Save a Life as one with a thought provoking and unavoidable message based upon the true
life of teenagers all across this country. The story of the film was so real. Do you want to know why I think that? Even ten years
removed from high school, I could personally relate to some of the issues that were addressed in the film. I think anyone who
watches it, will agree with me and have at one point in their life gone through something similar or know someone who has. If
you haven’t, I am sorry, but you have either been living under a rock or sadly, have no life.
The film stars Randy Wayne (TV’s “Numb3rs” & “NCIS”) as high school student Jake Taylor; Deja Kreutzberg (“As The World
Turns”) as Amy Briggs; Sean Afable (“Cold Case” & The Scorpion King) as Jonny Garcia; Josh Weigl (The Butterfly Circus) as
Youth Pastor Chris Vaughn; Robert Bailey Jr. (Coraline & The Happening) as Roger Dawson and Kim Hidalgo (“The New
Adventures of Old Christine”) as Andrea Stevens.
Jake Taylor is a young high school jock who appears to have it all, but after his childhood friend Roger Dawson comes to
school one day with a gun with plans to commit suicide, Jake’s world is flipped upside down with many questions, wondering
“Why did this happen?” and “Could I have stopped this?” The film walks you through Jake’s life, mistakes and all and how he
is able to cope and understand what has happened. As children, Jake and Roger were inseparable, but jump ahead to their
first year of high school and their friendship slowly starts to fade, when the friends surrounding Jake (including a girlfriend) start
to take precedence in his life. Soon after, it appears as though Jake has all but forgotten Roger, along with everyone else in the
school. It reluctantly starts a chain of events that would lead to Roger’s senseless and tragic death.
In the wake of Roger’s death, Jake spends much time making sense of what’s happened. He tries to drown out his anger,
stress and denial with late night weekend parties and sexual rendezvous with his girlfriend, Amy Briggs. It’s after a high school
basketball game that Jake meets a youth pastor named Chris Vaughn. Chris leaves an open-ended invitation to visit him at his
church, and afterwards give Jake, who reluctantly takes his business card, and just answers him saying “I’m not religious”.
Chris softly replies “Neither am I.” Jake’s life continues to spiral downward with thoughts of regret, and continues to party and
“have fun”. It’s actually the results of a party (busted up by cops) that finally sets him on a path that would lead him to calling the
youth pastor to pick him up after a drunken night of partying, sex and alcohol and of course his girlfriend stealing his truck. It’s
this that starts the process of Jake wanting answers, questions that he is compelled to have answered, and that lead him to
attend the church where Chris pastors, during a Sunday morning service.
Under Chris’ guidance, Jake begins to ‘open his eyes’ more to those around him. After listening to some devotionals that were
recorded by Pastor Chris, Jake explores the foundations of Christianity and comes to the realization that his struggles aren’t
something he can cope with by himself, and he desperately needs God’s help to make it through.
After what seems to be a spiritual transformation, we see Jake being baptized in the ocean, and his life seems to take on a
whole new meaning. In the meantime he meets Andrea Stevens, a youth group girl who encourages him to open up to others,
accepting people for who they are, regardless of their looks and social status. Enter Jonny Garcia, a kid who appears to be a
loner, choosing to sit distance himself from other students. Mustering up enough courage to walk over and talk to him, Jake
befriends the ‘emo kid’ and invites him to sit with their group during lunch.
It’s during the coming days that we learn the dark secrets of Jonny’s life, which begin to surface. Jake, after learning of this is
bound and determined to prevent him from making the same fatal choice as Roger. With Jake’s encouragement and Andrea’s
influence, who herself has battled her own demons, the fight is on! Even with the positive changes in Jake’s life, his past
mistakes are seemingly catching up with him, and as he struggles to cope and understand, another life is unknowingly
“slipping away”.
With increased pressure from his girlfriend, his parents and life in general, Jake begins to question the very foundations of his
newly found faith, wondering if this is God’s plans or not. At this point in the film, Jake touches on a subject that unfortunately
comes into far too many conversations when it comes to attending church. Hypocrisy. Sitting in youth group, hearing and
seeing people “running their mouths” and being purposely hurtful and judgmental, he stands up and chastises those who are
out of line. I can’t tell you how many times I have wanted to do this in church but fortunately haven’t, (probably in fear of
embarrassing my wife) but I definitely found it profound and entertaining to hear my thoughts at times, being played out in the
scene of a movie. It’s the subject matter of church hypocrisy and hypocrites that bother me the most about today’s church. It’s
these people who make the life of Jesus Christ and His followers look bad and I think that this was a great point to make in the
film, in addressing those who proclaim Christ in church and live a different and contradicting life outside the walls. The group
dcTalk used Brennan Manning’s quote in one of their songs, called “What If I Stumble”, which I automatically thought of when I
saw this scene, which said, “the leading cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their
lips and walk out the door and deny Him with their lifestyles. This is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”
Can Jake’s efforts and newly found faith help him prevent another tragedy and to save a life? I guess you are going to have to
go and check it out for yourself to find out!
Closing Thoughts
I walked away from this film feeling a little guilty. Not because it was a movie I shouldn’t have watched, but rather left me
questioning myself, trying to think back to high school. Did I treat someone badly who could have taken a turn for suicide or
even to abuse drugs and alcohol? I’d like to think that I didn’t, but only God knows. I prayed that moment that if I did, then God
forgive me and lift that person up if they were still dealing with those problems.
Bottom line, this film was great. The only problem I saw was that, from a Christian stand-point, there were some areas of the
story where I felt weren’t really explained well enough. In the scene when Jake gets baptized, there is no indication prior as to
whether he gave his life to Christ and accepted Him as Savior or not. We would like to assume this, but don’t know for sure.
There was no explanation or build up as to how he got to that point and decision. I have not read the book, but my guess is that
although the film’s plot doesn’t try to hide the Gospel’s message, I don’t think it really touches on it enough, and kind of ‘plays it
safe’. From a non-believers point of view, I think it could still be effective in planting the seed, and not being overtly “preachy”.
That will be something that some movie-goers will find appealing, while other may be somewhat disappointed.
From a family-friendly view, the themes and attributes of this film: dealing with suicide, teen pregnancy, “cutting”, teen-drinking
and partying may not be appealing or appropriate for viewers under the age of 13, I would caution discretion to parents
wondering if it’s appropriate for younger children to watch.
The big take away of this movie is simple, yet powerful. Great film that had a very influential and impacting story. Anyone who
deals with youths or teens on a regular basis needs to watch this film. It is an eye-opener, one not to be missed!
Review Written By: Jay Heilman [jay.heilman@christianmusicreview.org] on 1/19/2010
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