| Keeping the Faith |
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| questions or comments? email me at [email protected] |
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| Rating: Good Distributor: Touchstone Pictures Genre: Romance/Comedy Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 2 hours, 7 minutes Release Date: April 14th, 2000 (wide) Director: Edward Norton Cast: Ben Stiller, Edward Norton, Jenna Elfman, Anne Bancroft, Milos Forman. |
| Plot: A rabbi (Ben Stiller) and a priest (Edward Norton) have been lifetime friends despite cultural differences, in fact that makes their relationship thrive even more. They both are very successful in their respective holy places and are bringing in new crowds on account of their unorthodox manner of new age preaching. Things get complicated however, when their old girl buddy from middle school (Jenna Elfman) pops back in town, leading both our buddies to fall in love with her. The rabbi is the first to get the crack at it, and succeeds fairly well although he fears he will loose his job, friends, and family if he does not keep his relationship a secret as his girlfriend is not Jewish. Of course in the midst of all this confusion the word does not get out to the priest and this turn of events doesn't go well with the two friends. The whole gang is left to piece things together and make everything work out, which is especially difficult when the rabbi and his lady have their own problems. |
| Critique: Acclaimed actor Edward Norton's directorial and productorial debut is hardly a daring one. He keeps things simple in a lighthearted, sweet, intelligent romantic comedy. It gets a little formulaic and cliched, but is inventive in its dialogue and intelligent throughout. It is even ridiculously unbelievable, but we could care less as we see three talented actors work their magic on screen. We even get some special supporting work by classy older actress Anne Bancroft, and award winning director Milos Forman. Norton did a very good job with the actors, but its hard to tell if he just let them do what they always do since his cast was so talented, you never know. However, I'll give him credit he pulled it off in whatever way he dealt with them. There were some twists in the plot, nothing special all predictable, however the chemistry was so great and the screenplay so witty and quick I could care less. Jenna Elfman is probably the one player in the piece that stood out in my mind and really stole the film. She was charming, attractive, assertive, intelligent, and often funny. As a whole the dialogue was funny, but there wasn't a plethora of jokes. It was mostly the relaxed, silly mood that leant the film to being set in the genre of comedy. In going to Keeping the Faith you wouldn't want to expect a masterpiece, but you really should have a good time, and in fact I bet you will. Altoghether a winner, that is entertaining throughout the duration of its stay in our minds, and although has many cliches finds a way not to insult our intelligence. review by supernothingman questions or comments? email me at [email protected] |
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