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The Movies:  A Rabbi, a Priest & a Woman ...

Keeping the Faith {on video}
   Review by Laura Wisniewski

Stiller & Norton

There’s a reason that more than half the jokes you’ve heard in your life start out with "a rabbi and a priest." On the one hand, they are different from you and I, committed to something higher. On the other hand, they are human. At its best, this combination is both funny and moving. In Keeping the Faith, the combination is definitely at its best, and so are the characters. Even God has a sense of humor in this one.

Keeping the Faith is actor Ed Norton’s directing debut, a multi-layered film that introduces itself as a romantic comedy. The set-up, which begins with the tried-and-true device of a confession to a bartender, nicely played by Brian George, lays out the classic love triangle. Brian Finn, Anne Reilly and Jake Schram are inseparable as kids until Anne moves away. Brian and Jake remain best friends, following the same path in their separate religions. Jake becomes Rabbi Schram and Brian becomes Father Finn. All is not just well, but great, as Jake and Brian rekindle the spirit of their respective congregations with everything from standup at the pulpit, Q&A during sermons, and dancing in the aisles. But when Anne returns, another kind of spirit is rekindled. Both men fall in love with her, but neither can pursue a relationship without compromising their roles as men of the cloth.

The first half of this film is the funniest -- while Jake and Brian are on the way to religious success, and while Jake is on a hilarious losing streak in his search for a “nice Jewish girl” to marry. But in between the laughs, we get the message: faith is something more than the rituals of religion. Brian says, “Faith is a hunch that there’s something more, something out there bigger than us. And that hunch is God.” Except for setting themselves on fire with censers or passing out at circumcisions, or having their tushes beaten by the neighborhood basketball stars, these men have not had their faith tested. The test? It’s tempting to think that Anne -- tall, blonde, beautiful…perfect, scanning all of New York from her penthouse office -- is on special assignment from God 

Jenna Elfman, from TV’s Dharma & Gregg, plays this too-good-to-be true character with a combination of barely restrained sexuality, childlike honesty, New York irony and plain old wackiness. Ben Stiller, whose half-intelligent, half-clueless expression led us from sight gag to sight gag in There's Something About Mary, brings depth rather than weight to the role of Jake. And Ed Norton, who gave searing performances in both American History X and The Fight Club, gives an understated performance as a genuinely good man who must renew his commitment to his vocation on a daily basis. Other fine performances are turned in by Anne Bancroft, who, as Jake's mom, plays a typical Jewish Mother who nonetheless manages to avoid cliché. We're also treated to brief but important appearances by Eli Wallach as Rabbi Lewis, Jake's senior and mentor, and Milos Forman, the priest who mentors Brian.

Norton’s direction gives Keeping the Faith an authentic tone, even though some of the scenes are blatantly unbelievable. The screenplay, written by Norton’s close friend from college, Stuart Blumberg, is filled with one-liners, as well as conversations that sound the way people really talk. The ending goes over the top, but since the beginning does too, all is forgiven. 

Released in April 2000, Keeping the Faith opened to widely mixed reviews. While some dismissed it as silly, it was also hailed as profound. Norton, in an interview about the film, remarked, “ I do subscribe to the maxim that generally comedy is like jazz. Either you get it or you don't.” In many ways, the film is about “getting it.” As always, the question is not only who gets it, but what IT is anyway? Keeping the Faith explores this question with humor and compassion … for the rabbi, the priest, the businesswoman … even for the proverbial bartender who hasn’t heard this one yet..

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Lou Colasanti, Editor & Laura Wisniewski, Associate Editor
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