Between the Temples

How wonderful to see Carol Kane in a lead role at age 72 (was The Mafu Cage her last lead back in 1978?) Nathan Silver's frenetic screwball comedy/family drama feels like a nice bookend for Kane, whose 1975 film, Joan Micklin Silver's Hester Street, scored her an early-career Oscar nomination for Best Actress, playing a young abused Jewish immigrant wife. Here, Kane plays a lonely Jewish widow of advanced years who decides she'd like to have her long-denied Bat Mitzvah and seeks tutelage from one of her former music students, a neurotic cantor in the middle of a crisis of faith. Jason Schwartzman plays the melancholy cantor, Ben Gottlieb, who has been unable to sing since the death of his wife. Fortunately, the rabbi at the synagogue where Ben works (Robert Smigel in a rare acting role) is very understanding. Ben has moved back in with his mother, Meira, Caroline Aaron (known for her role in the TV series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel but who for me will always be Woody Allen's sister in Crimes and Misdemeanors whose experience dating via the personal ads leads to the worst form of getting dumped). Meira lives with her wife Judith, played by Dolly de Leon (Triangle of Sadness), a Filipino immigrant who has enthusiastically converted to Judaism.

Silver has cracked out nine micro-budget features, but this is the first I've seen (and the first many audiences will catch because its star power got it booked into far more arthouses). With its deliberately quirky characters, easily recognizable family dynamics, improvisational vibe, bloated running time, and distinctive 16mm hand-held Sean Price Williams cinematography, Between the Temples feels at times like it's trying too hard and other times like it should be making a bit more of an effort. It's the type of movie that, regardless of quality, is guaranteed to have a full, rich life at Jewish film festivals, where family comedies are a welcome relief from all the Holocaust dramas, political documentaries, and challenging films about what it means to be a Jew in today's world. These audiences are eager to enjoy something warm and familiar, and Silver delivers that in ways that feel moderately original and only slightly contrived. The film comes across as a bit of a patchwork, though. It's as if the writer/director knew that if he just cast great actors, a lot of the script would write itself. The shlubbier-than-usual Schwartzman and the as-always loopy with a deeply compassionate heart beneath the surface Kane are pitch-perfect for their roles. Still, the picture never ends up giving them more to do than what I expected when I saw the poster and read the premise. That's not exactly a terrible thing, but it makes Between the Temples feel like a bit of a missed opportunity for greatness.