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Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 0786936137071 Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC Label: Walt Disney Video Manufacturer: Walt Disney Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Walt Disney Video Release Date: October 17, 2000 Running Time: 128 minutes Sales Rank: 30341 Studio: Walt Disney Video Theatrical Release Date: April 14, 2000
Amazon.com: Keeping the Faith, Edward Norton's directorial debut, centers on Jake (Ben Stiller) and Brian (Norton), a rabbi and a priest who've been best friends since childhood. Both find their callings and grow into strong spiritual leaders for their community. The clever and occasionally slapstick comedy as Jake and Ben find their places in the religious community is precisely timed, and the film begins with a bang. Yet when childhood friend Anna (Jenna Elfman)--the perfect woman, a cross between "Jonny Quest and Tatum O'Neal"--finds them after all these years, both men fall for the stunning woman who is married to her career and her vibrating cell phone. But what starts as the making of a great joke (of course, the priest is sworn to celibacy and there's not much of a market for a rabbi married to a gentile) turns into a somewhat mawkish romance with mixed messages about the meaning of faith and the power of love. When Anna and Jake secretly begin a tryst, "just for fun," they of course fall in love, which is where the movie begins to unravel, as Anna is oblivious to the turmoil Jake might be feeling in having to choose between his faith and her. Jake turns into a total schmuck, Brian into a drunken idiot, and every secondary character becomes a clichéd stereotype, right down to the yentas in the synagogue and the kindly mentor (director Milos Forman) who guides Brian. However, despite the muck, Norton is surprisingly sympathetic and Elfman is an adorable heroine who helps bring some shining, fun moments to a mediocre film. --Jenny Brown
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Excellent Direction and Acting Can't Quite Save This Movie
PROS
Awesome Direction
Deft storytelling
Great Performances all Around (Norton is amazing in his role!)
CONS
Too Long
Muddy Ethical Sermonry
Jenna Elfman
Rating: - for a realxing time
A bit unrealistic regarding the presentation of Judaism and Christianity in the movie. But a perfect story about three friends who finally come to terms with their relationships. A perfect love-story. THE urban romance-movie. A perfect Jenna Elfman.
Rating: - "It's complicated. I'm reading "Dianetics"."
KEEPING THE FAITH (2000), is a cinematic take on the old joke, "A priest and a rabbi meet this blonde coming down the street. . ." In this case, the blonde is Jenna Elfman (Anna), the priest is Edward Norton (Brian), and the rabbi is Ben Stiller (Jake), three childhood best friends.
KEEPING THE FAITH is very much about how religiously observant people balance the demands of the spiritual life against those of the temporal life; it's also about how people, observant or not, balance the demands of career against those of love and family; and last, but not least, it is about how people ... Read More
Rating: - I'm not even religious and I love this film
It is a beautiful story about Faith and what that means to the people who take it seriously. I love the Milos Forman speech about a choice you have to make every day. I love the mingling of very different religions without feeling that any is superior. And the idea that faith should inform your life but not take it over. This is one of those movies I flip to whenever it is on, and I just sent it to my sister who loves Ed Norton but is somewhat afraid of what he might do in a movie with Ben Stiller. She should have some faith that they combine to make something we can all appreciate!
Rating: - Power of 3
This is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen!!! The greatest threesome in a comedy: Ben Stiller, Edward Norton, Jenna Elfman :-)
PLUS: The Asian karaoke singer is too funny for words...
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