To Save a Life
Samuel Goldwyn Films | Release Date: January 22, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
19
METASCORE
Overwhelming dislike based on 8 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
0
Negative:
7
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
Los Angeles TimesGary Goldstein
Manages to be appealing, poignant and inspiring in ways that are gentle and quite real. This smartly calibrated film also pulls off something rare by presenting religious commitment as something that's not only potentially healing and elevating, but also kind of cool. Read full review
38
Orlando SentinelRoger Moore
Overlong and entirely too ambitious in the number of “issues” it tries to cover, To Save a Life wanders all over the place before reaching its very predictable conclusions. Read full review
30
VarietyAndrew Barker
Just as representations of human sexuality on film are often unpleasantly twisted by the grotesqueries of the porn industry, so, too, are filmic representations of religious conversion homogenized by the faith-based entertainment industry. Case in point: Debutante director Brian Baugh's To Save a Life. Read full review
25
NPRIan Buckwalter
Miles ahead in terms of production values and a conscious avoidance of overt proselytizing. It will likely be an enormous success with the evangelical communities at which it's targeted. That doesn't save it from being an utter failure outside that narrow context. Read full review
25
New York PostLou Lumenick
Produced with the best of intentions by a California church and directed without distinction by first-timer Brian Baugh, To Save a Life would be bland and boring even as a half-hour after-school special. Read full review
20
Village VoiceMelissa Anderson
To Save a Life wants to rescue kids from the Satanic messages of "Gossip Girl"--a benign, even worthy enough objective, but must alternatives to empty, materialistic adolescence require baptism in the Pacific? Read full review
10
The New York TimesAndy Webster
The film would be a mere nuisance if not for its shameless exploitation of school shootings to advance its agenda. Read full review
0
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
A well-meaning but ineptly made message movie. Read full review
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