Keeping The Faith
The trailer would lead you to believe that this is a raucous comedy, worthy of Ben Stiller’s association - but this is also an Ed Norton movie, a slow, gentle, intellectual comedy. In case you don’t know it, Stiller plays a rabbi and Norton plays a priest. They are best friends and take their faiths very seriously, but while they adhere to different religions, they both seem to take the more humanist approach that faith and individual spirituality are more important than the specific trappings of religion, i.e. God is a God is a God. Ironically, it is the very trappings within which they operate as part of their vocations that cause all the fun when their best junior high friend, Jenna “I am so luminous it hurts” Elfman shows up. Also ironic (in a different way) that Touchstone Pictures (a child of Disney) would put this out - baiting the Church who have been quite impatient with the Family Studio of late. But I digress.
Norton and Stiller are adorable, very serious about their work, very cocky and sexy (which is weird to see in a priest), and they are both foiled deliciously by Elfman. It’s a nice cast, good work all around, but the story can really only go one way for everyone to remain true to themselves. So it does, but the drive is nice, even if it is a little predictable. Certainly there are obstacles and quandaries and whatnot along the way, I didn’t mean to imply there were not. Huge crises occur, maddeningly poignant moments, and some cute schtick blessedly spared the ruination of previews exposure.
I took almost no notes because it is a pleasant, meandering sweet story, that doth not offend one’s holy sensibilities too much but is still pretty forward-thinking. A laugh riot it’s not, and Norton is well on his way to donning Woody Allen’s director mantle for this kind of movie. Occasionally, it is weird to hear professional cynic Ben Stiller talk about his relationship with the Almighty, and definitely weird for him to also seem happy and - dare I say - gleeful? But it’s a nice change of pace for our Ben. Milos Forman, the man who directed Amadeus and Man in the Moon, plays an older priest friend of Norton’s, and I wish we could see more of him onscreen. I enjoyed him tremendously. While Elfman does always sound like she has a cold, I am starting to see how Dharma and Greg managed to win such a following - she is winsome and not so frighteningly beautiful that she seems inaccessible (Michelle Pfeiffer) or so determined to be totally goofy that she freaks you out (Amanda Peet) - she’s the girl next door, the one you either want to be or want to date - who wouldn’t renounce their vows for her? But that would be heresy to say, wouldn’t it?
The tag line for the poster reads, “If you have to believe in something, you might as well believe in love,” which I think does the screenplay a disservice in how it presents a forward thinking pair of religious guys. Faith is not wavered from, and doubt is fleeting. But if you can ignore this minor transgression (to forgive is divine) then it’s a nice little movie you should see with someone raised in a different faith than yourself.
MPAA Rating PG-13
Release date 4/14/00
Time in minutes 128
Director Edward Norton
Studio Touchstone Pictures
