Saving Silverman
Encyclopedia
Saving Silverman is a 2001 American comedy film
directed by Dennis Dugan
. It stars Jason Biggs
, Steve Zahn
, Jack Black
and Amanda Peet
. Neil Diamond
has a cameo role
playing himself. In the film, Darren Silverman's longtime friends try to save him from marrying his lovely but controlling new girlfriend, whose behavior threatens the friends, their band, and Darren's chance at happiness with his lifelong true love.
Outside North America
, the film was titled Evil Woman.
), Wayne LeFessier (Steve Zahn
) and J.D. McNugent (Jack Black
), best friends since fifth grade and Neil Diamond
fans throughout, form a Neil Diamond tribute band
called "Diamonds in the Rough". Darren meets a beautiful but domineering psychologist
, Judith Fessbeggler (Amanda Peet
), through a chance encounter in a local bar after a band gig. Unfortunately, six weeks into their relationship, Judith is still making Darren watch her change clothes, and though sleeping together is satisfying for her, Darren gets nothing but a sore jaw. Judith isolates
Darren from his friends, demands that Darren quit the band, receive humiliating medical procedures and attend relationship counseling under her care. Wayne and J.D. decide to save Silverman from her by attempting to bribe her, arm wrestle her, and shock her with faked photographs of Darren cheating, all to no avail.
The friends, undaunted, try to reunite Darren with his "one and only", Sandy Perkus (Amanda Detmer
), when she returns to Seattle to take her final vows as a nun. When Darren and Judith announce their engagement, Wayne and J.D. kidnap Judith. When they visit Coach Norton (R. Lee Ermey
) in jail, his advice is that they should just kill her. Sandy's feelings for Darren are reawakened, but the pair's attempted date is ruined by Darren's preoccupation with Judith. Sandy, disheartened, returns to the convent, but Darren snaps out of it and runs the 30 miles there to win her back.
Chained to an engine block in J.D.'s basement, Judith convinces J.D. he is gay
. She knocks him unconscious to steal his keys and escape, only to be tranquilized with a dart gun by Wayne. Returned to the basement, Judith seduces
Wayne into releasing one of her hands, so she escapes again. She runs to Darren's house in time to see him kiss Sandy, but shames him into confessing his engagement to Judith. Sandy, disheartened, returns to the convent again. Darren has Wayne and J.D. arrested. After escaping from jail with the help of Coach Norton, J.D. and Wayne rush to the convent on the brink of Sandy's final vows as a nun. They convince her that Darren still loves her. They then kidnap Neil Diamond to help Darren and Sandy reunite. At the wedding, Neil stalls the proceedings with song while Wayne and Judith beat each other up (as love play), Darren and Sandy reunite, and J.D. arrives holding Coach in his arms, and come out as gay to each other.
On stage at the Neil Diamond concert that night, the priest weds Darren to Sandy, Wayne to Judith, and J.D. to Coach; the entire cast sings "Holly Holy
".
80-s rom-com Chashme Baddoor
, 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. Cast member Jason Biggs said the film is based on "a universal problem" of girlfriends who control who their partners are friends with.
Saving Silverman was filmed in Vancouver
, British Columbia
at a cost of USD
$22 million. Neil Diamond
said humorously that "I was dragged into this project kicking and screaming."
$5.19M for DVD. The film opened at #3 at the North American box office making $7.4 million USD in its opening weekend, behind The Wedding Planner
, and Hannibal
, which opened at the top spot.
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
directed by Dennis Dugan
Dennis Dugan
Dennis Dugan is an American director, comedian, and actor. He is most famous for his partnership with comedic actor Adam Sandler, with whom he directed the films Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, Grown Ups, Just Go With It, and Jack and...
. It stars Jason Biggs
Jason Biggs
Jason Matthew Biggs is an American actor who is best known for his role as Jim Levenstein in the American Pie series of teen comedy films.-Personal life:...
, Steve Zahn
Steve Zahn
-Early life:Zahn was born in Marshall, Minnesota, the son of Zelda, who worked for the YMCA, and Carleton E. Zahn, a retired Missouri Synod Lutheran pastor. Zahn spent part of his childhood in Mankato, Minnesota, attending Kennedy Elementary School...
, Jack Black
Jack Black
Jack Black , is an American actor and musician, notably of Tenacious D.Jack Black may also refer to:* Jack Black , late 19th - early 20th Century author and hobo* Jack Black , drummer for 1970s UK punk band The Boys...
and Amanda Peet
Amanda Peet
Amanda Peet is an American actress, who has appeared on film, stage, and television. After studying with Uta Hagen at Columbia University, Peet began her career in television commercials, and progressed to small roles on television, before making her film debut in 1995...
. Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
has a cameo role
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
playing himself. In the film, Darren Silverman's longtime friends try to save him from marrying his lovely but controlling new girlfriend, whose behavior threatens the friends, their band, and Darren's chance at happiness with his lifelong true love.
Outside North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, the film was titled Evil Woman.
Plot
Darren Silverman (Jason BiggsJason Biggs
Jason Matthew Biggs is an American actor who is best known for his role as Jim Levenstein in the American Pie series of teen comedy films.-Personal life:...
), Wayne LeFessier (Steve Zahn
Steve Zahn
-Early life:Zahn was born in Marshall, Minnesota, the son of Zelda, who worked for the YMCA, and Carleton E. Zahn, a retired Missouri Synod Lutheran pastor. Zahn spent part of his childhood in Mankato, Minnesota, attending Kennedy Elementary School...
) and J.D. McNugent (Jack Black
Jack Black
Jack Black , is an American actor and musician, notably of Tenacious D.Jack Black may also refer to:* Jack Black , late 19th - early 20th Century author and hobo* Jack Black , drummer for 1970s UK punk band The Boys...
), best friends since fifth grade and Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
fans throughout, form a Neil Diamond tribute band
Tribute band
A tribute act is a music group, singer, or musician who specifically plays the music of a well-known music act - sometimes one which has disbanded, ceased touring or is deceased. Probably the largest class of tributes acts are Elvis impersonators, individual performers who mimic the songs and style...
called "Diamonds in the Rough". Darren meets a beautiful but domineering psychologist
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
, Judith Fessbeggler (Amanda Peet
Amanda Peet
Amanda Peet is an American actress, who has appeared on film, stage, and television. After studying with Uta Hagen at Columbia University, Peet began her career in television commercials, and progressed to small roles on television, before making her film debut in 1995...
), through a chance encounter in a local bar after a band gig. Unfortunately, six weeks into their relationship, Judith is still making Darren watch her change clothes, and though sleeping together is satisfying for her, Darren gets nothing but a sore jaw. Judith isolates
Solitude
Solitude is a state of seclusion or isolation, i.e., lack of contact with people. It may stem from bad relationships, deliberate choice, infectious disease, mental disorders, neurological disorders or circumstances of employment or situation .Short-term solitude is often valued as a time when one...
Darren from his friends, demands that Darren quit the band, receive humiliating medical procedures and attend relationship counseling under her care. Wayne and J.D. decide to save Silverman from her by attempting to bribe her, arm wrestle her, and shock her with faked photographs of Darren cheating, all to no avail.
The friends, undaunted, try to reunite Darren with his "one and only", Sandy Perkus (Amanda Detmer
Amanda Detmer
Amanda Jeannette Detmer is an American actress who has appeared in various films and television shows.-Life and career:...
), when she returns to Seattle to take her final vows as a nun. When Darren and Judith announce their engagement, Wayne and J.D. kidnap Judith. When they visit Coach Norton (R. Lee Ermey
R. Lee Ermey
Ronald Lee Ermey is a retired United States Marine Corps drill instructor and actor.Ermey has often played the roles of authority figures, such as his breakout performance as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Full Metal Jacket, Mayor Tilman in the Alan Parker film Mississippi Burning, Bill Bowerman in...
) in jail, his advice is that they should just kill her. Sandy's feelings for Darren are reawakened, but the pair's attempted date is ruined by Darren's preoccupation with Judith. Sandy, disheartened, returns to the convent, but Darren snaps out of it and runs the 30 miles there to win her back.
Chained to an engine block in J.D.'s basement, Judith convinces J.D. he is gay
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
. She knocks him unconscious to steal his keys and escape, only to be tranquilized with a dart gun by Wayne. Returned to the basement, Judith seduces
Seduction
In social science, seduction is the process of deliberately enticing a person to engage. The word seduction stems from Latin and means literally "to lead astray". As a result, the term may have a positive or negative connotation...
Wayne into releasing one of her hands, so she escapes again. She runs to Darren's house in time to see him kiss Sandy, but shames him into confessing his engagement to Judith. Sandy, disheartened, returns to the convent again. Darren has Wayne and J.D. arrested. After escaping from jail with the help of Coach Norton, J.D. and Wayne rush to the convent on the brink of Sandy's final vows as a nun. They convince her that Darren still loves her. They then kidnap Neil Diamond to help Darren and Sandy reunite. At the wedding, Neil stalls the proceedings with song while Wayne and Judith beat each other up (as love play), Darren and Sandy reunite, and J.D. arrives holding Coach in his arms, and come out as gay to each other.
On stage at the Neil Diamond concert that night, the priest weds Darren to Sandy, Wayne to Judith, and J.D. to Coach; the entire cast sings "Holly Holy
Holly Holy
"Holly Holy" is a song written and recorded by Neil Diamond. Released as a single in October 1969, it was quite successful as the follow-on to "Sweet Caroline", reaching number 6 on the U.S. pop singles chart by December...
".
Cast
- Jason BiggsJason BiggsJason Matthew Biggs is an American actor who is best known for his role as Jim Levenstein in the American Pie series of teen comedy films.-Personal life:...
- Darren Silverman - Steve ZahnSteve Zahn-Early life:Zahn was born in Marshall, Minnesota, the son of Zelda, who worked for the YMCA, and Carleton E. Zahn, a retired Missouri Synod Lutheran pastor. Zahn spent part of his childhood in Mankato, Minnesota, attending Kennedy Elementary School...
- Wayne Lefessier - Jack BlackJack BlackJack Black , is an American actor and musician, notably of Tenacious D.Jack Black may also refer to:* Jack Black , late 19th - early 20th Century author and hobo* Jack Black , drummer for 1970s UK punk band The Boys...
- J.D. McNugent - Amanda PeetAmanda PeetAmanda Peet is an American actress, who has appeared on film, stage, and television. After studying with Uta Hagen at Columbia University, Peet began her career in television commercials, and progressed to small roles on television, before making her film debut in 1995...
- Judith Fessbeggler - Amanda DetmerAmanda DetmerAmanda Jeannette Detmer is an American actress who has appeared in various films and television shows.-Life and career:...
- Sandy Perkus - R. Lee ErmeyR. Lee ErmeyRonald Lee Ermey is a retired United States Marine Corps drill instructor and actor.Ermey has often played the roles of authority figures, such as his breakout performance as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Full Metal Jacket, Mayor Tilman in the Alan Parker film Mississippi Burning, Bill Bowerman in...
- Coach Norton - Neil DiamondNeil DiamondNeil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
- Himself - Kyle GassKyle GassKyle Richard Gass , also known as KG or Kage, is an American rock musician, singer-songwriter and actor. He is a member of the bands Tenacious D and Trainwreck. In Tenacious D , Gass plays lead guitar and sings backup vocals, and also plays the role of Black's comic foil in most of their comedy...
- Bar guy
Production
Broadly based on the BollywoodBollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
80-s rom-com Chashme Baddoor
Chashme Baddoor
Chashme Baddoor is a Hindi language soap opera that aired on Zee TV channel in 1998. The series was produced by popular Indian television producer Manish Goswami...
, 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. Cast member Jason Biggs said the film is based on "a universal problem" of girlfriends who control who their partners are friends with.
Saving Silverman was filmed in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
at a cost of USD
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
$22 million. Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
said humorously that "I was dragged into this project kicking and screaming."
Reception
Reviews of the film were broadly negative, earning the film a 18% critic rating at Rotten Tomatoes (with the site's consensus stating: "Dragged down by a plot lacking any sense of logic and obnoxious, unsympathetic characters, this comedy is more crude and mean-spirited than funny.") and 22/100 at MetaCritic.com. Box office revenues were low. Worldwide theatrical gross was $26,086,706. Rental income was $21.75M for VHS and$5.19M for DVD. The film opened at #3 at the North American box office making $7.4 million USD in its opening weekend, behind The Wedding Planner
The Wedding Planner
The Wedding Planner is a 2001 romantic comedy film directed by Adam Shankman, written by Michael Ellis and Pamela Falk, and starring Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey.-Plot:...
, and Hannibal
Hannibal (film)
Hannibal is a 2001 psychological thriller film directed by Ridley Scott, adapted from the Thomas Harris novel of the same name. It is a sequel to the 1991 Academy Award-winning film The Silence of the Lambs that returns Anthony Hopkins to his iconic role as serial killer Hannibal Lecter...
, which opened at the top spot.