Product: Keeping the Faith (2000)
Rating: 5.0
a great date movie
They say Faith can move mountains. They say Faith can get you through the turmoil of life. What happens though when your Faith in God runs headlong into your Love of a woman? Can the two exist if the woman is of a different Faith? Can it exist if you are the leader of your denomination? Ed Norton's directorial debut examines this in what could be a serious movie but is a very funny romantic movie.We start with Father Brian Finn, Ed Norton, stumbling drunk and landing in an all night bar. He ends up telling the story to a world-weary bartender who claims to have heard it all. The bartender knew he had heard it all when it started with, "There's this Priest and a Rabbi..." Actually the story doesn't start there though.Approximately 16 years early Brian Finn and Jacob Schram, two best friends, met their soul mate Anna Riley. She was the kind of girl all boys wanted to be around, cute but not too girlish. These three are never seen without each other. Disaster strikes 2 years later when Anna's father is moved across the country to New York. The three occasionally keep in touch through letters but think that their partnership is over.We jump to the future where the two boys have taken interesting jobs. It seems Brian and Jake, Ben Stiller, have always had a calling and that calling was to preach the word. Brian has become a Priest and Jake is now a Rabbi. Both are the hottest things to hit their respective Church's and are shaking things up with contemporary ideas. They are even jokingly known in the streets as "The God Squad." They reach some opposition from the old-line members of their respective congregations however the increased numbers at each service is hard to argue with.One fine day Brian informs Jake that their old friend, Anna is going to be coming to New York for work and wants to get together with them. Both are stunned to find their gangly tomboyish friend has grown up to be a stunning workaholic played by Jenna Elfman.Here's where the story really gets interesting. The three friends begin palling around again and getting to know everything about them. Anna is basically the proto-typical 2000 woman. She is so busy working that she rarely has time to go out with men in fact as she puts it, she has a relationship with her phone. Anna is more interested in getting to know about the two guys. She finds it fascinating that the two men are so dedicated to their churches and attends services at both. She also is interested in knowing how they are going to get their Catholic/Jewish Community Center opened. However what interests her the most is the men's relationship issues. She quizzes Brian about his faith and of course about his vow...the big vow...and wants to know what is going on with Jake and his women. I say women because all the women at the Synagogue are desperate to get their daughters married off to the young Rabbi. This leads to a couple of wonderful dates for Jake.Problems occur with all this time spent together though. Brian begins to question his vows of Celibacy more and more as he is around Anna. Even more of a problem though occurs between Anna and Jake as they fall in love. This wouldn't be too much of a problem if Jake was just your normal attendee of the Synagogue however being a Rabbi up for his own church? Well let's just say it isn't looked upon too well to be going out with a blonde Irish girl if you want to lead a Synagogue.Since this is a Romantic/Comedy we know how it is going to end. The pleasure of the movie is watching how they get there. All three actors deliver superb performances. We knew Ed Norton was a great actor but Ben Stiller and Jenna Elfman more than stand with him in terms of comedic timing and drama. I was doubly impressed that Jenna, unlike some other television actresses, was able to successfully shed her television persona for a new gig.The dialogue was rapid fire and funny. The timing of the movie was also well paced. We had seen early evidence of Ed Norton's abilities when he helped out trimming down American History X and he continues to do a great job with the reins fully in his hands. This was definitely worth full price at the theater and is a great Date Movie.