KEEPING THE FAITH (Touchstone) Starring: Ben Stiller, Edward Norton, Jenna Elfman, Anne Bancroft, Eli Wallach, Ron Rifkin. Screenplay: Stuart Blumberg. Producers: Hawk Koch, Edward Norton and Stuart Blumberg. Director: Edward Norton. MPAA Rating: PG-13 (adult themes, profanity) Runnint Time: 129 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
KEEPING THE FAITH is not a feature length version of the old joke about a priest and a rabbi walking into a bar ... not exactly, anyway. The set-up finds director/co-star Edward Norton exploiting exactly that concept as his character -- New York Catholic priest Brian Finn -- relates the film's story to an incredulous barkeep. It seems that Brian has been friends since childhood with Jake Schram (Ben Stiller), who grew up to become a rabbi. Their middle-school cohort also included Anna Reilly (Jenna Elfman), who moved away to California fifteen years earlier but has recently returned to New York for her job. Her return creates romantic tensions between the three friends, what with vows of chastity, Jewish/Gentile relationship conflicts and all.
There's a lot of ground to be covered in a romantic comedy that also introduces questions of faith, cultural and religious melting pots and balancing career and personal goals. And KEEPING THE FAITH seems intent on covering every last square foot of it. Brian and Jake, each in his way, sets out to shake up the complacency of their respective congregations (usually with some sort of pop culture reference point in the mix). Anna struggles with whether her go-go job as a corporate consultant has left her soulless. Characters fret over how others will perceive their decisions to cross cultural barriers. Screenwriter Stuart Blumberg dashes madly back and forth between themes, while Norton dashes madly back and forth between tones (how else to describe a sentimental romance that also includes slapstick dips in holy water fonts and the surreal inclusion of "Heroes of the Torah" trading cards?). Oh, and somewhere along the way they're supposed to fit in a love story. It's no wonder Norton felt the need to have a lightweight film clock in at two hours plus.
Thank heaven that KEEPING THE FAITH is often quite funny in its fragmented, scattershot way. Blumberg's script is ripe with good dialogue, and a couple of solidly crafted set pieces (including a Jewish American Princess date from hell). Stiller continues to build a body of comic screen work that measures up to any of his contemporaries, giving zing to Jake's self-deprecating manner. There are eye-catching bit parts, including Ken Leung in a very funny scene as a karaoke machine salesman. And there's Jenna Elfman, who has never particularly impressed me in the past except as a ball of energy. Here she's a completely convincing object of desire (even if Norton lingers on her close-ups a bit too lovingly), luminous, intelligent and driven. As one part of a romantic pairing, she's a tough act to match.
The match, as it turns out, becomes one of KEEPING THE FAITH's bigger problems. Eventually the story pairs Anna with Jake, inspiring gags surrounding Jake's fear of offending either his mother (Anne Bancroft) or his more conservative congregation members by dating a Gentile. The premise is sound enough, but Stiller never looks comfortable as a romantic lead. In fact, there's more plausible chemistry between Elfman and Norton, and not just because both actors are blonde -- the pairing we're expected to root for just doesn't seem like a particularly good combination of personalities. How much more interesting -- and daring -- KEEPING THE FAITH might have been if the film had suggested Anna was merely sublimating her desire for Brian with Jake, making for much tougher choices at the film's conclusion.
That's probably too much to ask from a film that, at its core, is a fairly fluffy Hollywood confection. It's another one of those love poems to New York as the place where nice Jewish boys meet the goys of their dreams, like ANNIE HALL or WHEN HARRY MET SALLY only less effective as romance or comedy (though more than a match in romanticized Manhattan skyline shots). It's certainly a pleasant enough diversion, good for more than enough chuckles to make it worth a look, but it's surprisingly timid for a film that tries to cover so many thematic elements. It's also a lot warmer 'n' fuzzier than you'd expect from the cinematic equivalent of "a priest and a rabbi walk into a bar..."
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 ecclesiashticks: 6.
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