KEEPING THE FAITH

Name: KEEPING THE FAITH
Item: KEEPING THE FAITH
Author: Review

"Troubled Waters"

Family Content: -3 Excessive sex, violence, immorality, and/or worldview problems. (Sometimes excessive content such as violence is in otherwise redemptive movies.)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

In KEEPING THE FAITH, a Reform rabbi and a Roman Catholic priest encounter problems when they both start to have feelings for their childhood friend, a young female executive played by TV’s Jenna Elfman. Edward Norton plays the priest and directed the movie. Ben Stiller plays the rabbi, who secretly fornicates with his female friend. The rest of the story tells what happens when Jake is torn between his religious calling and his love for a non-Jewish woman and when Brian decides to act on his feelings.

Unlike some other movies featuring clergymen, KEEPING THE FAITH doesn’t turn its two spiritual leaders into loathsome people. In fact, there are a couple good scenes where the expression of faith is depicted as model behavior. Despite such scenes, the priest gets drunk, the rabbi enjoys secretly fornicating with his gentile girlfriend and the priest becomes a peeping Tom for a moment. Also, the only references to Jesus Christ are instances of profanity, spoken even by the rabbi. Such profanity is particularly offensive, and some people may think that it shows an anti-Semitic streak in the movie when it comes from a character who is a fornicating rabbi.

Content:

(B, C, AbAb, OO, LLL, V, S, AA, M) Moral worldview with Roman Catholic priest character in major role, undercut by anti-Christian, immoral & non-biblical sentiments & positive references to false New Age religion & occult practice of “feng-shui”; 12 mostly mild obscenities, 4 strong profanities (3 misusing the name of Jesus) & 15 mild exclamatory profanities such as “My G-d”; mild slapstick violence; repeated implied fornication by Reform-minded rabbi; no nudity; alcohol use & drunkenness; and, lying.

More Detail:

Have you heard the one about the priest and the rabbi who fell in love? It’s not what you think. They don’t fall in love with each other. They fall in love with someone else – a young female executive who was a childhood friend of theirs. The punchline to this story is revealed in the new movie, KEEPING THE FAITH, starring Edward Norton (AMERICAN HISTORY X), Ben Stiller (THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY) and Jenna Elfman (of TV’s DHARMA AND GREG).

Written and directed by Norton, the movie tells how the three childhood friends are reunited in New York City about 20 years later. Brian Finn (Norton) has become a Roman Catholic priest, while his best friend Jake Schram (Stiller) has become a rabbi. Both men have a modern outlook on their respective callings. In fact, they are cooperating to build an Interfaith Center where both of their congregations can come together to meet and relax. When their childhood friend, Anna Reilly (Elfman), returns for a prolonged corporate stay, the three renew their friendship. Rabbi Jake and Anna become lovers, but don’t tell Jake’s congregation or their friend, Father Brian. Brian, meanwhile, develops feelings of his own for Anna. The rest of the story tells what happens when Jake is torn between his religious calling and his love for a non-Jewish woman and when Brian decides to act on his feelings.

Unlike some movies featuring clergymen, KEEPING THE FAITH doesn’t turn its two spiritual leaders into loathsome people. In fact, there are a couple good scenes where the expression of faith is depicted as model behavior. For instance, Father Brian says his calling to be a priest is a “gift from God,” and Rabbi Jake talks to his congregation about how God “connects with us.” In one of the more marvelous scenes, the priest’s superior advises the priest that, to remain celibate, a priest must take each day one at a time.

Despite these scenes, people of faith (especially those leaning toward a more conservative, traditional mode of faith) will be disturbed by other scenes where the priest gets drunk, the rabbi enjoys secretly fornicating (repeatedly) with his gentile girlfriend and the priest becomes a peeping Tom for a moment. Another major problem is the fact that, although a priest is a main character, Jesus Christ is only mentioned in a profane manner. Such strong blasphemy is particularly offensive here, and some people may think that it shows an anti-Semitic streak in the movie, because the profanity sometimes comes from a fornicating rabbi. This profanity is complemented by the rabbi and the priest’s desire to present the “Old World God with a New Age spin.” Apparently, the filmmakers felt that any positive mention of Jesus Christ, the real reason for the priest’s faith, was best left on the cutting room floor.

All in all, KEEPING THE FAITH fails to satisfy, not only in its production quality but also in its spiritual and moral aspects. The filmmakers should have turned to the Christian Film & Television Commission to help them navigate these troubled waters.