Product: Keeping the Faith (2000)
Rating: 4.0
A sweet romantic movie that deserves a viewing.
Remember that joke about the Rabbi and the Priest? Well, someone in Hollywood decided to make a movie out of it and while the casual observer may think that it would be difficult to make a successful movie on such a flimsy topic, it works and pulls at your heartstrings.Jake Schramm and Brian Finn had been friends since their childhood. Every since they were kids Jakes has wanted to be a rabbi. He even had a set of All-Star Rabbi collecting cards! Brian has also been religious his whole life. Growing up as kids, a tomgirl by the name of Anna Riley came into their little New York life and soon the 3 became inseperable. However, fate would have it that Anna's parents were moving to the sunshine of California, crushing the bond between the three friends.Still, life goes on and 20 years later, we catch up with the two hip religious figures, now serving their own faiths as Priest and Rabbi. One of the subplots is that they want to build a Inter-faith community center because they feel that if they can be friends, religious denomination should not a dividing point amongst people. Jake is the dating phase, being set up by every Jewish mother and her sister, while Brian is living a satisfying celibate life with God as his companion.However this is turned upside down when Anna, on a business trip to New York, calls them up to catch up. She has turned into a radiant business woman who has kept enough of her quirkiness to make her irresistible to both men. Jake, who starts dating her, begins to develop commit issues because she is not Jewish (which might affect his chance of becoming head rabbi at his synagogue) and Brian begins questioning his faith in the Catholism because he has fallen in love so hard that he feels he has lost his commitment to religion.All three characters are played well. Jenna Elfman is the best as the irresistable Anna Riley. She gives her character so much charisma and is luminous on screen. Edward Norton is also very good as the sensitive priest who becomes hurt and discouraged when he realizes what he thought was sexual flirtation is actually just playfulness. Ben Stiller plays the it straight as the Rabbi, but he tends to become "less than a man" as he whines through his dilemma about interfaith relationships.All three of them have tremendous amounts of chemistry (as friends and lovers) and it makes the movie even more endearing. So, when this movie comes out near Halloween and you are sick of watching yet another slasher brain-drain flick, give this movie a chance....Rating: B+ps: Don the Crazy Chinese Karoake salesperson steals the movie! He is well played Ken Leung.