It's a tricky thing to make a film that tries to build a bridge of understanding. The domi-nant perception is that such an effort is too subtle for the average moviegoer to under-stand and therefore tolerate. SAVE ME presents an heroic if sometimes uneven effort.

Mark is a boozing, drugging, young gay man who engages in seemingly unsafe and promiscious sex, in and around a lonely desert town. After he is hospitalized after a long bender, his brother has him 'committed' to Genesis House, a place that claims to help young men like him turn away from the destructive, gay lifestyle. The leading lady of the place is Gayle played with briliance by Judith Light, someone who did become a star in the 80s in a silly sitcom, but who I can't help but believe deserved something closer to Meryl Streep's career. Alas, it's never too late, although she's back being silly again in Ugly Betty.

Here, she is all seriousness, and not at all the scenery chewing kind. The beauty of this movie is that it's small, neat and simple. There are no real monsters despite the seemingly wrongheadedness of the idea of undoing someone's sexuality. There is such a deep and underlying humanity in all of these characters that we come away understanding that everyone must support the position they have committed themselves to. Gayle has a gay son who she expelled and who then soon thereafter died. God, she says, has made her commit herself to save other young men from this future.

Needless to say, the film isn't exactly on the reform side of the argument so there is an unnecessary happy romantic ending where two handsome hunks ride off in the sunset together. Yet it is done with understated grace -- and the farewell between _Mark and Gayle is sincere and tender. Because although she did not save him from being gay, she did in fact save his life.

Opens in Los Angeles September 19, 2008

Directed by Robert Cary; written by Robert Desiderio, Craig Chester, and Alan Hines; cinematography by Rodney Taylor, edited by Phillip J. Bartell, music by Jeff Cardoni, produced by Chad Allen, Robert Gant, Herb Hamsher, Judith Light and Christopher Racster. Released by First Run Pictures. Running Time: 96 minutes.

With:Chad Allen (Mark), Robert Gant (Scott), Judith Light (Gayle), Stephen Lang (Ted), and Robert Baker (Lester).