Are you willing to change? Are you willing to change who you are to become the person you need to be? How about to become the person your significant other wants you to be? How much of you are you willing to give up in order to find romantic bliss? Are you willing to spend less time with your friends, the ones who know the real you better than anyone, to spend more time with someone who loves you? These are some of (but not all of, we’ll get to that later) the questions asked by today’s feature length film of focus, Saving Silverman (2001).
I also like this alternate movie poster, where they photoshopped Amanda Peet’s leg on top of Jason Biggs.
Before I get into the good stuff, I need to declare that I recognize my last issue was a little long. I’m terribly sorry. I’ll reel it in a little bit. I just had so much to say about The Favor (1994) that I couldn’t leave anything out. I know, I know, you don’t have all god damn day to read about weird sex comedies, so I’ll make these a little shorter than the last one. Plus, if I save some word space, I have more room to add screencaps and promotional pics from the movie, and who doesn’t love images?
Anyway, let’s get rolling, shall we? Today I want to talk about a film that you had many chances to see in the 2000s granted you had cable, as it was on Comedy Central and HBO like every day. I’m talking, of course, about a little flick called Saving Silverman. This ode to dedicated friendship was directed by Dennis Dugan, director of Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy, and a bunch of other Sandler hits. It stars Jason Biggs as the titular Darren Silverman, Jack Black in a tour de force as Darren’s dimwitted friend JD, the incredible Amanda Peet as Darren’s new love interest Judith, Amanda Detmer as Darren’s charming, long-lost high school sweetheart Sandy, and Neil Diamond as himself. Neil Diamond is actually one of the main themes of the movie, but honestly the real star and focus of the film is Steve Zahn as Wayne LeFessier, Darren’s other best friend since childhood, who initially introduces Darren to Judith, but eventually plots and schemes to get Judith out of Darren’s life at any cost. This movie is more about Wayne than anyone else, misleading title be damned.
I know what you’re thinking, “I think I’ve seen this. It was on one day and I let it play as background noise. It was kinda stupid.” And you are correct! This movie, despite me having seen it more times than I can count, has always been one of my all-time favorites. I know it’s stupid. I know there are a lot of clichés and terrible, terrible humor. I know it has a lovely 19% on Rotten Tomatoes. Sue me, I like it. So let’s talk about what happens in Saving Silverman, and keep our opening questions in mind while we do so.
The movie begins with Wayne narrating the history of not only his friendship with Darren and JD, but their lifelong obsession with Neil Diamond. See, Wayne was born at a Neil Diamond concert. Or his mother’s water broke at one. It isn’t clear, actually. But what is clear is that he has been best friends with JD and Darren since fifth grade, they are still friends as single adult men, and they have a Neil Diamond cover band which is a vehicle for them to busk for change and attempt to pick up women. By day, Darren works as an activities director at a senior living home, JD is a Subway Sandwich Artist and part time mascot (I think?), and Wayne owns a pest control business, where he functions as a rodent wrangler.
After a sidewalk Neil cover gig, the boys are discussing true love and Darren is pining for Sandy, his high school sweetheart who moved away to join the circus with her family, whom he refers to as his one and only. They spot Judith at the bar by herself reading a book, looking not only hot and confident, but slightly intimidating. Wayne wants to introduce her to Darren against Darren’s wishes. Wayne is showing how controlling he is right off the bat. Little did he reckon that Judith is also a controlling person, and after a jumbled first encounter, she has the malleable Darren buy her a drink, and when he orders himself a beer, she says no and orders him a gin and tonic. You see? She can do that too, Wayne.
After being together for six weeks, Darren tries to discuss finally having sex with Judith, but Judith thinks they should wait. Oh, except she says it’s cool if Darren goes down on her. He seems to do a good job, as she looks satisfied while he rubs his jaw in comical pain, and when he asks for her to reciprocate, she hands him a porn magazine and tissues. Here lies the joke they are trying to make for the whole movie; Judith is a manipulator who doesn’t care about Darren and only wants him to fill the role she has decided for him. We’ll get back to this.
Eventually Darren wants Judith to meet the fellas, so he brings her over to Wayne’s house to drink and watch a football game, which goes just as horribly as you’d expect, including Judith ridiculing Wayne’s possibly fake framed Neil Diamond memorabilia. When Judith ends up covered in beer after antics from JD and Wayne get out of control, she forces Darren to leave and tells him he’s not allowed to be friends with JD and Wayne anymore.
The change happens immediately it seems, as Darren is replaced by a new singer in the cover band and the guys discuss all the things Judith is forcing Darren to do now that he doesn’t hang with them, including getting butt cheek implants, and making him watch as she burns his Neil albums in a bonfire. When the guys reunite to talk, Wayne and JD plead with Darren to break up with Judith, as they believe their lives are being ruined by his absence. All Darren can talk about is how he needs to get going to do things for Judith. This leads to Wayne and JD vowing to break them up to, in their minds, save their friend.
Before we get more into the actual antics here, we need to talk about Darren. Honestly, he’s such a malleable spineless twerp that his own movie isn’t even really about him, it’s about Wayne and Judith. The reason Judith is able to get him to do all these things is because she could tell from meeting him he wouldn’t stand up for himself and would just do whatever she wanted him to do. But here’s the thing: Wayne is pretty much the same character. We really never know what Darren wants aside from Sandy, it's just always shown that Wayne “has his friends’ backs” and is there to fight for them, but not that he actually cares about their wants and needs, which is evidenced in a later scene with JD. He’s mad at Judith, not for “stealing his friend” but for being more of an influence in his friend’s life than he was, and enacting changes that are ultimately (although some more vain than others) to make Darren into a more mature individual.
The guys try their best to break Darren and Judith up. They send photoshopped pictures of Darren with sex workers, try to bribe and arm wrestle with Judith, and attempt to crash a stiff cocktail party that ends up with them being booted out and vowing to get their friend back. When none of this works, however, the next logical step is to kidnap Judith upon learning of her engagement to Darren. While this is going on, Sandy is back in town, ostensibly to take her final vows to become a nun. But why would Wayne let a silly thing like that come in the way of his manipulating?
Wayne and JD kidnap Judith, but Darren is still hopeful she’ll come home so they fake her death by digging up a corpse and placing it in Judith’s car which goes over a cliff to be destroyed. While Darren attempts to mourn for his deceased fiancé, Wayne forces him to go on a date with Sandy where he learns she is becoming a nun, taking some of the pressure off their meeting. However, their old chemistry is clearly still there.
The guys decide they need help with Judith and go talk to their old high school football coach who is in prison for murder and is a sort-of father figure to the guys. He instructs them to kill her, telling them what to do, but they fail of course.
Wayne attempts to force a club date on Darren and Sandy and wires a device to Darren where he’ll shock him any time he mentions Judith. Just a reminder that this is supposed to be his best friend. Anyway, the date goes horribly aside from some physical comedy with the shock device on the dance floor and Sandy goes off back to the convent. Darren goes after her, however, and they reunite, seemingly ready to move in together.
Meanwhile, Judith has used her superior mental abilities to control her situation calmly and coolly. She helps JD come to terms with the fact that he is gay, something that Wayne continues to dismiss after he comes out to Wayne. She also seduces Wayne in order to get the key for her shackles. She eventually frees herself and walks in on Darren and Sandy, who are both shocked to see her as they thought she was dead. Cue Wayne and JD entering and trying to explain themselves after Judith says what happened. Darren punches them both and has them sent to jail, where he visits them to confirm that he will be marrying Judith and Sandy will be taking her final vows as a nun.
The coach, who had been released from prison, breaks the guys out in order to stop the wedding and save Darren. Along the way they stop by the convent and convince Sandy to come with them and leave the sisterhood behind. They also stop by…somewhere…to kidnap Neil Diamond real quick, which they do with extreme ease, especially as he had a large security force earlier in the movie and there is supposed to be a restraining order against JD preventing them from getting close to him. But anyway, Neil Diamond, notorious complete dickhead/asshole (whichever insult you prefer) decides to help the guys who he previously had a restraining order on. They interrupt the wedding with song and Darren tells Judith that Sandy is his one and only. When Judith asks who her one and only is, Wayne walks up singing, apparently coming to the realization that he and Judith are great toxic counterparts. They beat the shit out of each other then end up kissing. When the coach asks JD when he’ll find a bride, he comes out to the coach, who then comes out to JD. Cut to the final scene, a wedding for Darren and Sandy, Judith and Wayne, and in a shocking lack of acknowledgement of twisted power dynamics JD and the coach. The vows are exchanged ON STAGE AT A NEIL DIAMOND CONCERNT?!? AND THE WHOLE CAST SINGS AND PERFORMS WITH NEIL AS THE CREDITS ROLL! WOW! End scene.
Okay, so first off, all this Neil Diamond product placement is insane. Who owned Neil Diamond in 2001? Was it Frito Lay? This seems like a total Pepsi move. Regardless, we are handed a movie about loyal friendship which turns out to be some kind of weird documentary about how good Neil Diamond is at being kidnapped and coerced. I think using Neil Young would have been cooler, especially since the movie was filmed in Canada, but this is a shill for Big Neil Diamond (the industry) to keep pushing “Cherry, Cherry” on unsuspecting moviegoers. Regardless, this movie features Amanda Peet so no matter what, I will watch it, as I am still in love with her. Steve Zahn and Jack Black are outstanding as a psychopath and a clod and Amanda Detmer is the perfect charmer. Neil Diamond could have used some work. C’mon dawg, it’s your documentary and we all know you’re a dickhead. Act like it!
So now I want to go back to my original questions. Would you be willing to change for love, even if it means leaving your friends behind? We are presented with a movie that tells us “this chick is CRAZY everybody!” even though Wayne is far crazier than Judith could ever try to be, mostly because she’s intelligent and Wayne acts on impulse , and the fact that Judith outwardly attempts to manipulate the easily-manipulated Darren while Wayne tries to manipulate Darren under the guise of helping him, even though everything he does is selfish and against Darren’s best interests.
Jason Biggs, when promoting the movie at the time, said it was based on the universal problem of girlfriends who try and control who their boyfriends are friends with (I’m paraphrasing). This was absolutely a whole movie and sitcom genre in the 90s and 2000s. Hollywood tried to drill this idea that your brutish friends always know what’s best for you over the “crazy, controlling new love interest,” even though the friends are themselves crazy and controlling. Look at Darren. Sure, he may not have wanted butt cheek implants or to wear suits or drink gin, but honestly I don’t think Darren knew what he did want at all aside from being with Sandy again. In that sense, Judith’s controlling behavior was actually helpful to get Darren to shed his manboy skin and grow a little. If he’s gonna be a pushover, might as well be pushed over into something more than what he is. But Wayne can’t stand that. He can’t have his friend change and leave him behind, even though he pushed Darren to be with Judith in the first place. All his life, his idea of loyalty was actually just manipulation, trying to make Darren into what Wayne thought would make Darren a good guy. As I said up top, it’s funny that for a movie with his name in it, we really don’t know much about what makes the guy tick (and lets be honest, Sandy could make any of us tick).
So once again I ask, are you willing to leave your friends behind for a chance at true love? Well, if true love looks as hot as Amanda Peet, I would be extremely tempted. Being able to grow as a person with a gorgeous woman pushing you to be a better version of you is honestly the dream. But there’s one thing to factor in here; Wayne is a fucking psycho and he has JD and the coach on his side, so he has strength in numbers. Honestly, if my friends were as dangerous and insane as Wayne, I may have to choose my friends. I would do anything to prevent them from plotting and scheming, to avoid all the danger that would bring, and if that means staying in a Neil Diamond cover band, so be it.
So that’s Saving Silverman, the weirdest Neil Diamond documentary in history. Chances are you’ve seen it already, and I’m hoping you have because it is not streaming anywhere for free right now. That’s right, if you wanna see this absolute trashgem, you’ll need to shell out your hard-earned money and rent it on Vudu or Prime. “Sweet Caroline” IS played briefly in this movie, so it may not be safe around groups of old white people. Feel free to grab your sequin shirt and click rent. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.