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Keeping the Faith
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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
Languages: English (Original Language), AnalogHebrew (Original Language), AnalogSpanish (Original Language), Analog
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Walt Disney Video
Release Date: October 17, 2000
Running Time: 129 minutes
Studio: Walt Disney Video
Theatrical Release Date: April 14, 2000
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Editorial Review:
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:  - ok romantic comedy
Ben Stiller and Ed Norton star as a rabbi and priest who are reunited with their friend from junior high school, a high-powered, workaholic businesswoman played by Jenna Elfman. I thought Norton and Stiller had good chemistry and were believable as life-long friends. I thought the early scenes in which a Jew and Christian become interested in each other's faith interesting. I just wished this would have been developed more throughout the film.
When Elfman's character comes into the picture, ... Read More
Rating:  - Family Love also w/friends
Where do you begin? I have never seen a film use Judiasm and Christianity as strong influences in a film.It was used so well in this film. Between Jenna Elfman and Ben Stiller and Edward Norton they really show how each religon is so majorly important to their lives and how it will effect their lives all together. It is a wonderful movie, I really enjoyed.
Rating: - Where was I when this played in theaters?
Kudos to Edward Norton -- both because this was his first out as a director, and because his story pays due (and funny) respect to organized religion (and individual faith.) How long has it been since we've seen a film focusing on believing/involved people of faith that wasn't either preachy and sanctimonious, or cynical and paranoid? Let's see -- maybe Steve Martin's "Leap of Faith", or Denzel Washington's remake of Cary Grant's "The Preacher's Wife." Maybe a couple more -- but not many.
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Rating: - What a great take on religion . . .
Critics, schmitics---what I love about KEEPING THE FAITH is it's take on ecumenism and the sparkle of the characters/actors. Perhaps all romantic comedies are, after all, mawkish, since the pattern has been around for centuries. However, most of us do like seeing our favorites in the genre, as well as seeing the latest take on same.
Here Edward Norton's character is a priest and Jenna Elfman's is a high-powered executive just back in New York after having been away from the boys for at least a decade. ... Read More
Rating: - A Guilty Pleasure
If you are home sick and have absolutely nothing else more pressing to do, "Keeping the Faith" is a nice little diversion for 2 hours.
Ben Stiller is more or less Ben Stiller, with a few moments of actual minimal dramatic moments which he carries off quite well. Jenna Elfman is beautiful, lively, and has a long career ahead of her...on television. Ann Bancroft plays a less serious version of the same "Jewish Mother" she played opposite Harvey Fierstein in "Torch Song Trilogy", and she is absolutely ... Read More
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