Review: Rescued (C)

Released direct-to-DVD in 2008, Rescued (IMDB) intends for its title to have a double meaning:  referring to both a ‘stranded on a desert island’ story and a take on one young woman’s spiritual progression.  Does either half of this dual theme have anything to recommend to discriminating LDS viewers?

Megan is a twenty-something working professional with a good job in a large office.  She’s LDS, but teetering on the edge of inactivity.  She admires her supervisor from a distance, the handsome and successful Mark, and jumps at the chance to accompany him on a business trip to Indonesia.  Also along for the trip is coworker Chris, a Latter-Day Saint from Megan’s local ward who harbors a secret crush on her.

After their plane crashes, the three of them find themselves on a deserted island with no food, clothes, nor means of calling for help. (Chris notes helpfully that Indonesia has over 17,000 islands.)  As you might surmise given the castaways’ gender pairing (and the secret and not-so-secret crushes between them) their survival efforts are complicated by a love-triangle, with Megan having to choose between the solid and dependable Chris, and the dashing and charismatic Mark.

It’s not much of a spoiler to say that the three get rescued from the island eventually — it’s the title of the movie, after all — so the attraction of the film isn’t going to be a dramatically tense and compelling story of survival.  I don’t know that the filmmakers necessarily intended the “Trapped on a Desert Island” plot-line to be the primary attraction of the movie — clearly it was written just as a framing story for character-based content, both romantic and spiritual.

However, since that *IS* the story of the movie, the film must of necessity contain scenes to cover the full story arc.  Which means a lot of screen time is used in showing the details of how the characters get stranded on the island and how they get off again — scenes that even the filmmakers may agree are perfunctory and not that interesting.   The absence of a compelling story means that half of the film (at least) doesn’t have much to offer narratively.

Let’s look at the other half, then — the character-based elements along with the spiritual theme:

Megan is the “heroine” of the film, although she seems pretty shallow at the beginning (and doesn’t change a whole lot even at the end).  She doesn’t seem like she’s ever had a deep thought about anything — whether spiritual or practical — and her view of relationships, particularly her attraction to Mark, doesn’t go beyond the fact he’s rich and handsome.

(This makes it ironic when later in the movie she overhears Mark call her “shallow”, sending her running away in tears.  Sorry, Megan.  Sometimes the truth hurts…)

Mark is played by Beauty and the Beast’s Matthew Reese and is simply a variation of his “Beast” character from that movie, but without any kind of redemptive transformation at the end.  He’s charismatic and personable when he wants to be, and an impatient and demanding jerk the rest of the time.  Megan is present for enough of Mark’s “jerk” moments when the three of them are together that she shouldn’t start to fall for him when he turns on the charm when they’re alone, but she does anyway.

Chris is ostensibly a recent convert to the Church but nonetheless seems very well versed in the habits of long-time cultural Mormons: most obviously, his mastery of the “stare of disapproval” given to anyone who does things that don’t meet his standards.  His conversations with Megan almost universally feature him shaking his head and expressing his disapproval for decisions she’s made, couched in phrases like “I’m just *worried* about you”.  (One head-scratching line of dialogue has him reprimanding Megan for “going clubbing on a Tuesday”. *Tuesday*, Chris?  What Church standard says members can’t go out on Tuesdays?)

All three main characters end up being shallow in their own way, and unfortunately the spiritual elements of Rescued turn out to be unforgivably shallow as well.   Megan’s behavior that leads to Chris’s ‘concerns’ spiritually?  Drinking coffee and not going to church meetings more than once a month.  Which would be one thing if Chris were looking at those things as means to an end (spiritual growth and progression), not the end itself.  (Hint to Chris…and the filmmakers: there’s more to being “spiritual” than attending meetings and not drinking coffee…)

“Actions are a reflection of your beliefs,” Chris says, “You’re compromising the things that really matter.” Okay…so what are “the things that really matter”?  Unfortunately, Chris doesn’t illuminate her (or us) what those are — the only important thing appears to be staying away from the local Starbucks.   When Megan says she’s grown tired of the “rules” and the “Do Not’s” after being in the Church her whole life, instead of explore any higher purpose behind commandments and obedience (whether to the Word of Wisdom or anything), Chris’s answer is that Megan is just supposed to follow the rules and the Do Not’s, anyway.

(Megan — as many LDS in real life do — may feel the rules, meetings, and cultural customs often detract from personal spirituality rather than augment it.  This would be an interesting theme for a movie about organized religion to address — however, deeper looks at spirituality seem to be beyond Chris’s capacity to understand.  In reality, Chris would probably be the type of member that is pushing Megan away from church in the first place.)

Mark is the “non-believer” of the group, although this has no bearing on any of the spiritual discussions beyond one comment about how “God asks for too much time.” (I would question how many “non-believers” the screenwriter has met if she genuinely thinks that is their primary objection to God and religion.)

Even beyond the film’s facile view of spirituality, Chris tells Megan he’s sorry for being so judgmental at the end, and tries to seem sincere about it.  Given the primary theme of the entire movie to that point has been the appropriateness of his “judgmentalness”, this rings about as hollow as those movies that revel in mindlessly violent action sequences for 90% of the run time, then try to end with a message about how ‘violence isn’t the answer’.    Since the movie has made the primary catalyst for Megan being “rescued” from herself to be Chris’s constant disapproval and scorn — rather than, say, love, understanding and a deeper search for spirituality — the movie’s attempt to give lip service to the latter at the end rings wholly false.

The fact that the limits of spirituality explored by Rescued don’t ever go beyond drinking coffee and attending meetings is the most depressing thing about it.  The potential is there to present a genuine attempt to understand Megan’s point-of-view — exploring the true nature and purpose of obedience and commandments beyond the “Thou Shalt Not’s”.  However, at the end when she and Chris have reconciled, the only thing different about Megan is she now has an LDS boyfriend.  There’s no sense that her personal spirituality — or even her definition or understanding of what “spirituality” is — has changed.  It’s possible she’ll stop drinking coffee now, I guess — are we to believe that that’s the only obstacle between her and higher spiritual growth?

The biggest irony is the idea of being stranded on a desert island and needing a “higher power” to rescue oneself (per the title) has an easy and obvious analogy with the Savior and the Atonement.   Unfortunately, I don’t remember even a single mention of Jesus Christ by name within the entire screenplay — LDS filmmakers know the Atonement is a greater defining spiritual principle than the Word of Wisdom, right?

In the end, we have a movie where neither story nor theme has a lot to offer.  Like many recent LDS films, Rescued had the potential for some spiritual statement of deep significance but, like the characters’ ill-fated plane trip in the movie, got lost at sea somewhere along the way.

Final Grade: C

Additional Notes and Comments:

(1) Viewers will note how remarkable it is that both Mark and Chris are on the island for what appears to be several weeks without either growing a beard.  It’s an open question whether this is (a) due simply to the low budget of filming the island scenes, or (b) deliberate, as Chris — the spiritual one — can’t very well grow a beard and be taken seriously in spiritual matters, right?  (Beards being WICKED, you know…)