View source for Saving Silverman

{{short description|2001 film by Dennis Dugan}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Saving Silverman
| image          = Saving silverman poster.jpg
| alt            = 
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| director       = [[Dennis Dugan]]
| producer       = [[Neal H. Moritz]]<br />Warren Carr
| writer         = [[Hank Nelken]]<br />[[Greg DePaul]]
| starring       = {{plainlist|
* [[Jason Biggs]]
* [[Steve Zahn]]
* [[Jack Black]]
* [[Amanda Peet]]
* [[R. Lee Ermey]]
* [[Amanda Detmer]]
* [[Neil Diamond]]
}}
| music          = [[Michael Simpson (producer)|Mike Simpson]]
| cinematography = [[Arthur Albert]]
| editing        = [[Debra Neil-Fisher]]
| studio         = [[Columbia Pictures]]<br />[[Village Roadshow Pictures]]<br />[[Original Film]]<br />NPV Entertainment
| distributor    = [[Sony Pictures Releasing]]
| released       = {{Film date|2001|02|09}}
| runtime        = 90 minutes
| country        = United States
| language       = English
| budget         = $22 million<ref name="boxofficemojo" />
| gross          = $26.1 million<ref name="boxofficemojo" />
}}
'''''Saving Silverman''''' (internationally titled '''''Evil Woman''''') is a 2001 American [[Romantic comedy|romantic comedy film]] directed by [[Dennis Dugan]] and starring [[Jason Biggs]], [[Steve Zahn]], [[Jack Black]], and [[Amanda Peet]]. [[Neil Diamond]] has a [[Cameo appearance|cameo role]] playing himself. In the film, Darren Silverman's longtime friends try to save him from marrying his controlling new girlfriend, whose behavior threatens the friends, their band, and Darren's chance at happiness with his lifelong true love.

The film received generally negative reviews from critics, and was a [[box office disappointment]], grossing only $26.1 million worldwide against its $22 million budget.<ref name="boxofficemojo" />

==Plot==
Darren Silverman, Wayne LeFessier, and J.D. McNugent, best friends since fifth grade and [[Neil Diamond]] fans throughout, form a Neil Diamond [[tribute band]] called Diamonds in the Rough.

Through a chance encounter in a local bar after a band gig, Darren meets Judith Fessbeggler, a beautiful but domineering [[psychologist]] who shows signs of being [[emotional abuse|emotionally abusive]]. Six weeks into their relationship, Darren asks her if they could finally have sex, but Judith refuses until marriage. She suggests non-penetrative sex instead, so Darren gets nothing but a sore jaw.

Judith isolates Darren from his friends, demands that he quit the band, receive humiliating medical procedures, and attend relationship counseling under her care. Wayne and J.D. decide to save Darren from her by attempting to bribe her, arm wrestle her, and finally shock her with faked photographs of Darren cheating, all to no avail.

The friends, undaunted, try to reunite Darren with his "one and only" high school sweetheart, Sandy Perkus, when she returns to Seattle before she takes her final vows as a nun. When Darren and Judith announce their engagement, in which Darren would take her last name, Wayne and J.D. kidnap her. However, she discovers the identity of her captors, and the duo are convinced they cannot let her go. Despite sending Darren a fake break-up letter from Judith, Darren wasn't willing to forget about her, so Wayne and J.D. staged Judith's fake death using her car and a cadaver dug up from a cemetery and sent them over a cliff.

When they visit their high school football coach, Coach Norton, in jail (who accidentally killed a referee with a football signal pole in a fit of rage), he suggests they just kill her. The pair attempt to shoot Judith, but end up deciding against it. Sandy's feelings for Darren are reawakened, but their attempted date is ruined by his preoccupation with Judith. Sandy, disheartened, returns to the convent, but Darren snaps out of it and runs the {{convert|30|mi}} there to win her back.

Chained to an engine block in Wayne's garage, Judith helps J.D. come to terms with the fact that he is gay. Taking advantage of the situation, she knocks him unconscious to steal his keys and escape, only to be chased down and [[Tranquilizer gun|tranquilized]] by Wayne. Returned to the garage, Judith seduces him into releasing one of her hands and revealed her last fiancé was killed in an underground [[Muay Thai]] fight. Coach Norton is [[parole|paroled]] and discovered that the guys didn't kill Judith, so he attempts to do so and she escapes again. This time, she runs to Darren's house in time to see him kiss Sandy, but shames him into confessing his engagement to her while revealing what really happened to her. Sandy, disappointed, returns to the convent again.

Darren has Wayne and J.D. arrested. Escaping from jail with Coach Norton's help, J.D. and Wayne rush to the convent on the brink of Sandy's final vows as a nun. Convincing her that Darren still loves her, they then kidnap Neil Diamond and urge him to help save Darren from a disastrous marriage and reunite him with Sandy.

At the wedding, Neil stalls the proceedings with the song [[Hello Again (Neil Diamond song)|"Hello Again"]] in which Darren comes to terms with himself and reunites with Sandy. Wayne and Judith (the latter being furious that her wedding is ruined) beat each other up (as love play) only to wind up making out, and J.D. arrives holding Coach in his arms, who coincidentally reveals to J.D. that he too is gay. All three couples then wed onstage at Neil Diamond's concert in which Diamond ministered the reunions: Darren to Sandy, Wayne to Judith, and J.D. to Coach. The show begins as Diamond starts singing with Darren, Wayne, and J.D. playing their instruments while Judith, Sandy, and Norton are the back-up singers.

==Cast==
* [[Jason Biggs]] as Darren Silverman
* [[Steve Zahn]] as Wayne Leferssier
* [[Jack Black]] as J.D. McNugent
* [[Amanda Peet]] as Judith Fessbeggler
* [[Amanda Detmer]] as Sandy Perkus
* [[R. Lee Ermey]] as Coach Norton
* [[Neil Diamond]] as himself
* [[Kyle Gass]] as Bar guy
* Christopher Logan as Vagee, Darren's band replacement
* [[Jared Van Snellenberg]] as Belston
* [[Dennis Dugan]] as referee (uncredited)

==Production==
This film falls within a cross-genre film type from the late 1990s and early 2000s in which grooms are saved, or nearly saved, from distasteful marriage.<ref name="Slate">Adam Sternbergh (January 28, 2004). [http://www.slate.com/id/2094507/ "The Devil Wears Pearls: In recent movies, grooms across America flee their frigid fiancees"]. [[Slate Magazine]].</ref> Cast member Jason Biggs said the film is based on "a universal problem" of girlfriends who control who their partners are friends with.<ref name="IGN">Steve Head (January 24, 2001). "[http://movies.ign.com/articles/036/036744p1.html I Am... I Said Saving Silverman]". [[IGN]] Movies. Retrieved December 11, 2009.</ref>

''Saving Silverman'' was filmed in [[Vancouver]], [[British Columbia]]<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0239948/locations ''Saving Silverman'' locations] from the [[Internet Movie Database]]</ref> from June 7 to August 2000 at a cost of US$22 million.<ref name="Jackson">{{cite book|title=Neil Diamond: His Life, His Music, His Passion |author=Laura Jackson |year=2005 |publisher=ECW Press |page=215 |isbn=978-1-55022-707-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1MCvNbOTdSgC&pg=PA216 }}</ref> [[Neil Diamond]] said humorously, "I was dragged into this project kicking and screaming."<ref name="IGN"/> He wrote and composed a new song, "I Believe in Happy Endings", for the film.

==Home media==
''Saving Silverman'' was released in two versions on home video - the PG-13 version that had been released in theaters, and the original R rated cut. The differences between the two versions are mostly dialogue changes and small additions to certain scenes, although two new scenes do appear, with some other scenes in the movie swapped around to compensate for the longer run time. A Blu-ray version was finally released through Mill Creek Entertainment on July 13, 2021, in a bare-bones package that contained no bonus features from the earlier DVD releases. Additionally, this format's packaging claims the film is PG-13, but actually contains the R-rated cut of the movie.

==Reception==
''Saving Silverman'' has a score of 18% (an average rating of 3.7 out of 10 based on 103 reviews) on review aggregator [[Rotten Tomatoes]]. Its critical consensus states, "Dragged down by a plot lacking any sense of logic and obnoxious, unsympathetic characters, this comedy is more crude and mean-spirited than funny."<ref>{{cite web | title=Saving Silverman at Rotten Tomatoes| work=Rottentomatoes.com | url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/saving_silverman/ | access-date=2020-12-17}}</ref> [[Metacritic]] gives it an average score of 22% based on 29 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".<ref>{{cite web| title=Saving Silverman at MetaCritic| work=Metacritic.com| url=http://www.metacritic.com/video/titles/savingsilverman?q=Saving%20Silverman| access-date=2007-04-02| archive-date=2007-09-27| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927003417/http://www.metacritic.com/video/titles/savingsilverman?q=Saving%20Silverman| url-status=dead}}</ref>

The film opened at No. 3 at the North American box office making US$7.4{{nbsp}}million in its opening weekend. The film grossed a domestic total of $19,402,030 and $26,086,706 worldwide from a $22 million budget.<ref name="boxofficemojo">{{mojo title|savingsilverman|Saving Silverman}}<!--whole para so far--></ref> It opened behind ''[[The Wedding Planner]]'' and ''[[Hannibal (2001 film)|Hannibal]]'', the latter of which opened at the top spot.{{Citation needed|date=August 2012}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* {{IMDb title|0239948}}

{{Dennis Dugan}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saving Silverman}}
[[Category:2001 films]]
[[Category:2001 black comedy films]]
[[Category:2000s buddy comedy films]]
[[Category:2001 LGBTQ-related films]]
[[Category:American black comedy films]]
[[Category:American buddy comedy films]]
[[Category:American LGBTQ-related films]]
[[Category:Columbia Pictures films]]
[[Category:2000s English-language films]]
[[Category:Films set in Seattle]]
[[Category:Films set in Washington (state)]]
[[Category:Films shot in Vancouver]]
[[Category:Films directed by Dennis Dugan]]
[[Category:Films produced by Neal H. Moritz]]
[[Category:LGBTQ-related black comedy films]]
[[Category:Village Roadshow Pictures films]]
[[Category:Original Film films]]
[[Category:2000s American films]]
[[Category:English-language black comedy films]]
[[Category:English-language buddy comedy films]]