''Saving Silverman'' (internationally titled ''Evil Woman'') is a 2001 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Dennis Dugan Dennis Barton Dugan (born September 5, 1946) is an American director, actor, writer, artist and comedian. He is known for his partnership with comedic actor Adam Sandler, for whom he directed the films ''Happy Gilmore'', '' Big Daddy'', '' The Be ...

and starring

Jason Biggs Jason Matthew Biggs (born May 12, 1978) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing Jim Levenstein in the '' American Pie'' comedy film series and Larry Bloom in the Netflix original series ''Orange Is the New Black''. He als ...

Steve Zahn Steven James Zahn (; born November 13, 1967) is an American actor and comedian. His film roles include ''Reality Bites'' (1994), ''That Thing You Do!'' (1996), ''Stuart Little'' (1999), '' Shattered Glass'' (2003), ''Sahara'' (2005), '' Chicken Li ...

, Jack Black and

Amanda Peet Amanda Peet (born January 11, 1972) is an American actress. She began her career with small parts on television, and made her feature film debut in '' Animal Room'' (1995). Her portrayal of Jill St. Claire in '' The Whole Nine Yards'' (2000) bro ...

. Neil Diamond has a

cameo role A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly ei ...

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 was remade in Telugu as ''

Thotti Gang ''Thotti Gang'' is a 2002 Telugu-language comedy film produced and directed by E. V. V. Satyanarayana starring Allari Naresh, Prabhu Deva, Sunil, Gajala and Anita Hassanandani. The movie was released on 6 December 2002 to positive reviews and ...

'' in 2002 and

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

as ''

De Taali ''De Taali'' (translation: ''Hi-5'') is a 2008 Indian comedy film. It stars Riteish Deshmukh, Aftab Shivdasani, Ayesha Takia and Rimi Sen in the main roles. The movie is a remake of the 2001 film Saving Silverman. It is directed by Eeshwar Niva ...

'' in 2008.

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 A tribute act, tribute band or tribute group is a music group, singer, or musician who specifically plays the music of a well-known music act. Tribute acts include individual performers who mimic the songs and style of an artist, such as ...

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

emotionally abusive Psychological abuse, often called emotional abuse, is a form of abuse characterized by a person subjecting or exposing another person to a behavior that may result in psychological trauma, including anxiety, chronic depression, or post-traumat ...

. 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", Sandy Perkus, when she returns to Seattle before she takes her final vows as a nun. When Darren and Judith announce their engagement, Wayne and J.D. kidnap her. However, she discovers the identity of her captors, and the duo are convinced they cannot let her go. When they visit 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 30 miles there to win her back. Chained to an engine block in Wayne's garage, Judith helps J.D. realize he is gay. She knocks him unconscious to steal his keys and escape, only to be tranquilized by Wayne. Returned to the garage, Judith seduces him 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 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 to help Darren and Sandy reunite. At the wedding, Neil stalls the proceedings with the song "Hello Again" while Darren and Sandy reunite. Wayne and Judith (the latter being furious that her wedding is ruined) beat each other up (as love play) and J.D. arrives holding Coach in his arms, who coincidentally reveals to J.D. that he too is gay. The couples then wed on stage at Neil Diamond's concert; Darren to Sandy, Wayne to Judith, and J.D. to Coach.

Cast

as Darren Silverman *

as Wayne Lefessier * Jack Black as J.D. McNugent *

as Judith Fessbeggler * Amanda Detmer as Sandy Perkus * R. Lee Ermey as Coach Norton * Neil Diamond as himself *

Kyle Gass Kyle Richard Gass (born July 14, 1960) is an American musician, comedian and actor best known for co-founding—and being a member of—Tenacious D, a Grammy-winning comedy band. He also co-founded the bands Trainwreck and the Kyle Gass Band, ...

as Bar guy * Christopher Logan as Vagee, Darren’s band replacement * Jared Van Snellenberg as Belston *

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.Adam Sternbergh (January 28, 2004)
"The Devil Wears Pearls: In recent movies, grooms across America flee their frigid fiancees"

Slate Magazine ''Slate'' is an online magazine that covers current affairs, politics, and culture in the United States. It was created in 1996 by former '' New Republic'' editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. In 2 ...

. Cast member Jason Biggs said the film is based on "a universal problem" of girlfriends who control who their partners are friends with.Steve Head (January 24, 2001).
I Am... I Said Saving Silverman
. IGN Movies. Retrieved December 11, 2009. ''Saving Silverman'' was filmed in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

from June 7 to August 2000 at a cost of US$22 million. Neil Diamond said humorously that "I was dragged into this project kicking and screaming." He wrote and composed a new song, "I Believe in Happy Endings", for the film.

Reception

''Saving Silverman'' has a score of 19% (an average rating of 3.7 out of 10 based on 102 reviews) on review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

. 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."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

gives it an average score of 22% based on 29 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". The film opened at No. 3 at the North American box office making US$7.4million in its opening weekend. The film grossed a domestic total of $19,402,030 and $26,086,706 worldwide from a $22 million budget. It opened behind ''

The Wedding Planner ''The Wedding Planner'' is a 2001 American romantic comedy film directed by Adam Shankman, in his feature film directorial debut, written by Michael Ellis and Pamela Falk, and starring Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey. Plot Ambitious Sa ...

'' and '' Hannibal'', which opened at the top spot.

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.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saving Silverman 2001 films 2001 black comedy films 2000s buddy comedy films 2001 LGBT-related films American black comedy films American buddy comedy films American LGBT-related films Columbia Pictures films 2000s English-language films Films set in Seattle Films set in Washington (state) Films shot in Vancouver Films directed by Dennis Dugan LGBT-related black comedy films Village Roadshow Pictures films Original Film films 2001 comedy films 2000s American films