IMDb RATING
6.8/10
5.9K
YOUR RATING
After a childhood friend's death, Jake Taylor, an all-star athlete must change his life - and sacrifice his dreams to save the lives of others.After a childhood friend's death, Jake Taylor, an all-star athlete must change his life - and sacrifice his dreams to save the lives of others.After a childhood friend's death, Jake Taylor, an all-star athlete must change his life - and sacrifice his dreams to save the lives of others.
- Awards
- 2 nominations
Kimberly Daugherty
- Andrea Stevens
- (as Kim Hidalgo)
Trinity Scott Brown
- Kelsi
- (as Trinity Scott)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaRoot beer and cream soda was used for the alcohol drinking scenes.
- GoofsWhen Jake is uploading scanned photos to the Internet, his computer is clearly uploading them from "C:\Users\Rachel". No characters in the film are named Rachel.
- Quotes
Jake Taylor: What good is all this if you're not going to let it change you?
- Alternate versionsA "church-friendly" version was provided for public screenings.
- ConnectionsReferenced in The Vow (2012)
- SoundtracksDare you to Move
Performed by Switchfoot
Featured review
I should start off by telling you a few things about myself to remove any false pretenses. I am a committed Christian who Pastors a youth group. About 3 years ago, my best friend from primary school killed himself and this woke me up from my complacency and caused me to re evaluate the world I was living in. We should have an awareness of the effect we have on others we meet and have contact with in the world and hold ourselves accountable for them. So there are a lot of points in Jake's story and also Chris' that really hit home to me, and I showed this film to my youth group last night. A group of kids who'd been tackling and screaming each other minutes earlier sat completely silent for the next two hours.
The film starts with the main character Jake at the funeral of his childhood friend Roger, who we soon learn committed suicide right in front of Jake after shooting up their school. Jake is haunted by Roger's final words "you never cared anyway," and thinks back to the way their friendship ended, with Jake rejecting Roger to go and party with the cool kids, and then consistently ignoring him for the next two years until his death. Attending Jake's funeral leads to Jake meeting a Youth Pastor named Chris, who helps Jake when he is stranded drunk after police raid a party.
Jake eventually ends up coming first to church and then to youth group. Jake researches some of Roger's blogs online and comes into contact with a whole community of depressed teenagers and eventually decides to befriend one of them, Johnny Garcia, and that's where the title of the film comes from.
The acting in this film is serviceable. It is no master class, but there are no real cringe worthy moments either. The script is uneven, containing many genuine moments, but every now and then descending into caricature and over simplification. The production values are surprisingly decent for a Christian film, probably a few too many slow motion shots and short crane shots of characters during arguments, two of my least favourite film making clichés. But these can easily be forgiven. The overall authenticity of the story and the consistency of the message being delivered ultimately win out.
This film is essentially a call to arms for all people. It's time to shed our apathy, reach out to the people who need it. The old man who sits at the same bench at the supermarket every day. That one person in our workplace or school who everyone picks on. Just a bit of effort can mean a whole lot. It's not really about converting a person to my world view, it's about showing a person with nothing to live for that life is worth it.
Be mindful of the rating. This DVD, with beer pong, chugging, a reasonably authentic suicide etc is strictly for older youth.
The film starts with the main character Jake at the funeral of his childhood friend Roger, who we soon learn committed suicide right in front of Jake after shooting up their school. Jake is haunted by Roger's final words "you never cared anyway," and thinks back to the way their friendship ended, with Jake rejecting Roger to go and party with the cool kids, and then consistently ignoring him for the next two years until his death. Attending Jake's funeral leads to Jake meeting a Youth Pastor named Chris, who helps Jake when he is stranded drunk after police raid a party.
Jake eventually ends up coming first to church and then to youth group. Jake researches some of Roger's blogs online and comes into contact with a whole community of depressed teenagers and eventually decides to befriend one of them, Johnny Garcia, and that's where the title of the film comes from.
The acting in this film is serviceable. It is no master class, but there are no real cringe worthy moments either. The script is uneven, containing many genuine moments, but every now and then descending into caricature and over simplification. The production values are surprisingly decent for a Christian film, probably a few too many slow motion shots and short crane shots of characters during arguments, two of my least favourite film making clichés. But these can easily be forgiven. The overall authenticity of the story and the consistency of the message being delivered ultimately win out.
This film is essentially a call to arms for all people. It's time to shed our apathy, reach out to the people who need it. The old man who sits at the same bench at the supermarket every day. That one person in our workplace or school who everyone picks on. Just a bit of effort can mean a whole lot. It's not really about converting a person to my world view, it's about showing a person with nothing to live for that life is worth it.
Be mindful of the rating. This DVD, with beer pong, chugging, a reasonably authentic suicide etc is strictly for older youth.
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- How to Save a Life
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $500,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $3,777,210
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $1,581,517
- Jan 24, 2010
- Gross worldwide
- $3,824,868
- Runtime2 hours
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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