Keeping the faith; The Jake Schram way. Review on Keeping the Faith Movie

I saw Keeping the Faith lately. An interesting movie that could potentially appeal to

anyone who are a bit confused about the relationship between love and faith(Faith in god, that is) Well, It definitely charmed me and my notion about the concept seemed brimming with such intensity that I have decided to write a review about the movie.

It?s the first time I am critically following up a movie. I thought it wont be rational because there?s always a gap between what the director/the creator means and what the viewer construes. But I have decided to make this one an exception because the subject fascinated me.

What?s it about

The movie is about a rabbi, Jake Schram played by Ben Stiller and Father Brian Finn,

played by Edward Norton who fall in love with the same woman, Anna Reilly, portrayed by the gorgeous Jenna Elfman ( Remember Dharma & Greg) Anna, a happy-go-lucky business women loves Jake who have just got a date with a popular ABC news correspondent. He asks Brian and Anna to give him company at the restaurant because he was nervous about ?the whole thing?. Brian is a full-time clergy who also speaks Spanish and has no interest in sex and the man-woman chemistry. But Anna impedes Brian in something he was best at i.e. being consummately faithful. He started to love Anna. But Jake realizes Anna is his love and starts seeing her secretly (That is without the knowledge of Brian). Now comes the climax. Jake, doubting on the degree of spirituality of Anna and also due to the fact that she is not Jewish, refuses to give their relationship a go. The broken up Anna calls up Brian and tells him everything. Apparently, Brian is appalled and devastated. Now there?s a divide between the three friends. Anna decides to move out of town. The reunited Jake and Brian has buried everything behind including Anna. But Brian didn?t want to allow that. He wins over Jake in going back to Anna. Now there is that happy-ending-together scene with all the three (where Jake kisses Anna and Brian hugging both from behind) Now, that may not sound a very special storyline (or narration), but there are a few things I liked about the movie.

Things I like...

Jake is truly what I think a man should be like with a rider that conditions apply. I am not talking about a man who have forgone his love just because she is less spiritual. I don?t think that will make sense. Condition two is that I don?t mean to say the men should not see what women want (which incidentally is the most rugged question in the whole world). Thirdly, this will never justify the whole break-up scene. The reason why I liked the character is because he don?t want to molest his faith just to see whether a relationship will work, to begin with. He thinks if any of his actions thwarts his beliefs and passion for his career as a rabbi, it will not be good for both of them. On the same line, if a woman thinks her man can quite well be a deterrent in her way and her dreams, he?s not her man. The concept is that every relationship is between two persons rather than between just a man and a woman ( that is being less materialistic) And when they choose to give it a shot, they should know they are going to perfectly fit in to each other?s sphere.

Things I don?t hate

I love Father Brian Finn, a naïve clergy who thinks love and faith lies at two extremes. There are a few extremely funny moments in the movie. One such scene is that of aMexican boy making sacrament with Brian that he often has sexual feelings towards women. Brian tells him its perfectly natural. In the next scene, the boy passes a vulgar comment in Spanish on Anna when both of them walks by the road. The last scenes in which Jake wrestles and get conked with the security man at Anna?s office are also hilarious. The casting was good too. Ben Stiller was outstanding quite like his roles in There?s Something About Mary and Meet the Parents. Edward Norton after his tough roles as the mysteriously innocent convict in Primal Fear and the desperate lover in Everyone Says I am in Love, played an off beat role in his acting career. The movie also stars Anne Bancroft.

In the end...

In one of the post-climax scenes, Anna comes and makes the penance (with Brian on the other side, of course) by admitting her mistake of not telling him about her affair with Jake. There are a few scenes in which you would feel the movie would have been better without. The movie may not have been critically acclaimed by the ?real? critics but it was an entertainer with an interesting twist. I thought Keeping the Faith was an adorable romantic comedy that conveys an interesting thesis- The compatibility of love with faithor the other way around.