Review: Deadheads, Bible-Thumpers Collide in a Bewildered ‘Salvation Boulevard’

Mocking extremists is about as easy as finding a needle in a needlestack, so why isn’t this Greg Kinnear vehicle funnier?

Crazy Christians and pot-smoking Deadheads clash in George Ratliff’s sometimes funny but mostly uneven religious satire, “Salvation Boulevard.” While they inspire fear and terror at the polls, Evangelicals have inspired laughs in movies like “Easy A” and “Saved!” but mocking extremists is about as easy as finding a needle in a needlestack.

Carl Vanderveer (Greg Kinnear), a Grateful Dead fan reborn, thinks that being a Deadhead is like joining a church — a community of people connected by a spiritual quest, coming together in celebration and commitment to a, shall we say, higher cause.

He leads a withering life in a rural western town with his obsessive wife, Gwen (Jennifer Connelly) and their surprisingly even-keeled daughter.

Comments