BETWEEN THE TEMPLES (2024)
Starring Jason Schwartzman, Carol Kane, Caroline Aaron, Robert Smigel, Madeline Weinstein, Matthew Shear, Dolly de Leon, Lindsay Burdge, Jason Grisell, Cindy Silver, John Magary, Annie Hamilton, Julia Walsh, Brittany Walsh, Diane Lanyi, Keith Poulson, Jason Grisell, Jaden Waldman, Simona Sickler, Pauline Chalamet, Stephen Lack and Jacob Morrell.
Screenplay by Nathan Silver & C. Mason Wells.
Directed by Nathan Silver.
Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics. 111 minutes. Rated R.
Between the Temples is both wonderfully human and terribly uncomfortable all at the same time, which I guess is like life. I can’t quite decide if I liked it or was a bit freaked out by it, but that is like life, too.
The basic idea of Between the Temples is reminiscent of the classic 1970s black comedy Harold and Maude – although this film never quite reaches the dark depths that one takes on. Between the Temples in general has a lighter, slightly goofier vibe, although there are still several scenes which can still make the skin crawl, just a bit.
Jason Schwartzman is Ben, a cantor at a synagogue in upstate New York. However, his wife died in a sudden accident a year earlier and Ben has completely become unglued. He has moved back home with his two mothers (Caroline Aaron and Dolly De Leon). He has lost his voice, and his will to work, and even perhaps his faith and his will to live.
Early on, he lays down in the middle of a darkened road, willing a vehicle to come and run him down. When a truck stops in time not to crush him, the driver drops him off at a local bar. Ben is not a drinker, but he has a few chocolate mudslides until he gets wasted and picks a fight with one of the other guests.
After being flattened, he is helped up by Carla (Carol Kane), an older woman who Ben realizes had been his music teacher when he was a boy. Carla doesn’t recognize him, but she feels responsible for getting him home safely, not realizing the address on his license is his former home which he shared with his late wife.
As they get to know each other a bit, they recognize a kindred spirit in each other. Beyond the simple fact that both is getting over the death of a spouse, they both feel like outsiders, in their communities, in their families, even in their religion. (Carla was born Jewish but converted from the faith for her husband and family.) They also have a shared history – Carla does eventually remember young Ben when she sees a picture of him as a child – from a time when both had more hope in life.
Having been separated from her Jewish roots for so long, she decides that she wants to have a bat mitzvah – a ceremony which was withheld from her at 13 by her Russian communist parents. She feels that the ceremony will reconnect her with her religious roots. Cantor Ben is the tutor for students getting their bar/bat mitzvah, and Carla joins his class, although she is the only student there over 12 years old.
As they get to know each other, they become fast friends. And Ben, whose emotions have been tangled up in knots for most of a year, starts to develop feelings for her. But are those feelings romantic or simply misplaced companionship?
Things get even more complicated when his mothers – who are constantly attempting to set him up with a nice Jewish girl – connect him with the Rabbi’s daughter Gabby (Madeleine Weinstein), a sweet-if-slightly-neurotic woman who just happens to be the perfect likeness of Ben’s late wife. (Weinstein also plays the ex in periodic short flashbacks.)
This all leads to two of the most awkward scenes in recent cinema – a flirtation between Ben and Gabby at the local cemetery and perhaps the most passive-aggressive, antagonistic dinner party ever. Literally, the scenes do make you laugh, but only partially because they are funny, also partially from discomfort.
Schwartzman is terrific as the deadened and introverted Ben, but this film is really Kane’s triumph. She breezes in with her unmistakable voice and her practiced eccentricity and Between the Temples comes fully alive when she is on screen. It is rare that Kane gets such a significant role at this point in her career and that is a sin – she is a truly unique screen presence who should be used as often as possible.
Between the very specific and Jewish niche storyline and the general enhanced quirkiness and awkwardness of the action, I can’t see Between the Temples reaching any kind of mass audience. Still, it is the kind of movie that could probably inspire a rabid cult following. I hope it gets that chance.
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright ©2024 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: August 23, 2024.
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