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KEEPING THE FAITH Send This Review to a Friend
The religiously correct, whether Jewish or Catholic, are likely to have their gripes about the new comedy "Keeping the Faith," which nevertheless will provide plenty of good-natured humor for those who don't give a damn about offending anybody. My complaint is that a basically good idea is excessively afflicted with the bad habits of Hollywood movies that don't know when to stop. It's an old refrain.
Jake, Brian and Anna are inseparable buddies growing up in New York as kids. Anna moves away, leaving the boys to be lifelong pals. As adults, Jake (Ben Stiller) becomes a rabbi, not just any type rabbi, but a new-age one who gives outrageously folksy sermons to his congregation and gets a black chorus to sing a Jewish favorite to enliven services. Brian (Edward Norton) becomes a priest. Suddenly Anna (Jenna Elfman) turns up as a highly successful, workaholic corporate executive. She's also gorgeous. The predictable happens. Both men fall for her, each with obvious problems.
Jake can sleep with her but secretly and with marriage out of the question because she's not Jewish, like the stream of young women that mothers in his congregation try to fix him up with. Brian can neither sleep with her nor marry her because he's a priest. (No doubt when he does succumb to kissing her there'll be those who take offense.) There's abundant humor along the way, some of it corny, some really funny. A high-profile supporting cast includes Anne Bancroft as Jake's mother, Eli Wallach as a rabbi, Ron Rifkin as an influential member of the congregation and Milos Forman as an all-wise priest.
Stiller is fun to watch, as is Norton, who wears a second hat as the film's director, working intelligently from Stuart Blumberg's busy screenplay. Elfman is sexy and endearing as the woman in the middle who has longings that go beyond her passion for success. But the frills, including a ridiculous scene in a confessional, mount to the point where the denouement has to be worked out in Capra fashion with a crowd of onlookers cheering the lovers on. How much you enjoy the film is tied to how much you can forgive. I was able to forgive more on the laugh side than on the formulaic romantic side. A Touhcstone Pictures release.
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