did you ever hear the one about the priest and the rabbi ? you did , huh ? well i promise you never heard it quite like this before . okay i'm lying . that may be what i want to say , but edward norton's " keeping the faith " is a good natured , and at times very amusing little comedy which suffers from a lack of originality . in fact , the biggest thing this movie has going for it are the performances from the two lead actors . don't get me wrong , " keeping the faith " contains a few hilarious scenes , but a lot of the comedy feels like its been done a thousand times over . for example , how many times have you seen a person in a movie ask to be punched to show how tough they are , only to collapse when actually hit ; or seen a rabbi pass out the first time he sees a circumcision ? strangely , the lack of originality doesn't ruin the movie . because the film is so pleasant natured the rehash of past comic bits makes it feel comfortable and familiar . father brian finn ( edward norton ) and rabbi jacob schram ( ben stiller ) have been friends since childhood , and they've both always known exactly what they wanted to do with their lives . as children their best friend was anna reilly ( jenna elfman ) , who acted just like one of the boys . now , twelve years since they last saw anna , she shows up as a career driven business woman . jacob , whose congregation has been trying to set him up with someone for months , finds himself falling for anna and she for him . the two decide to get together , but without telling brian for fear of alienating him . as anna falls further and further in love with jacob , jacob begins alienating himself from anna . he is afraid that his mother ( anne bancroft ) will disown him , as she did his brother , for falling for a non-jew . i must admit , i was impressed by edward norton's abilities as a director , this being his first time behind the camera . not only is the man an incredible actor , but he is now showing talent in other areas as well ? does this strike anyone else as being a little unfair ? okay , i'm done being jealous . " keeping the faith " is a rare sort of movie these days . it's a wholesome yet still highly amusing romantic comedy . when was the last time you saw a movie made for people over the age of 10 which didn't contain some act of extreme violence or blatant , explicit sexuality ? okay , my sermon is now done with as well . i'm sorry about getting so preachy , but i just saw a movie about a priest and a rabbi , what do you expect ? speaking of getting preachy , i will say that " keeping the faith " has a tendency to do just that from time to time ; but not nearly as much as it could have considering the film's topic . edward norton may be a very gifted actor , but he obviously has no problem taking a back seat to other actors . in fact , one of the problems i had with this movie was that norton's character is never given the amount of screen time he deserved . brian finn could have been a very interesting character but is never developed to that point . ben stiller's character , rabbi jacob , on the other hand , is given ample screen time . ben stiller , previously seen in the funny but overrated " there's something about mary " , and the sadly underrated " mystery men " , is an actor who is capable of switching from over-the-top physical comedy to serious acting in a split second . in this movie he finally given the chance to shine as he has so deserved . the last bit of casting , jenna elfman ( dharma and greg ) , was a very poor decision in my opinion . i have never found jenna elfman to be a particularly gifted actress , and in this case she is asked to carry half the film with her limited talents ( she's also a good two or three inches taller than stiller , but that's beside the point ) . besides the somewhat dubious casting of miss elfman in a leading role here , there is one more thing which makes " keeping the faith " a good film rather than a great one . i've always said an important part of a movie is the soundtrack , and that couldn't be more true in this case . not only is there very little music , but when the music is present , it is nearly always inappropriate for the scene . watch for milos forman ( director of " one flew over the cuckoo's nest " ) in a supporting role as norton's mentor . anne bancroft ( " the graduate " ) is perfectly cast as stiller's mother , but ron rifkin ( " boiler room " ) is unfortunately underused as an elder member of stiller's congregation . " keeping the faith " runs a little too long at 125 minutes . i recommend it to fans of ben stiller and romantic comedies in general and give the film three and a half out of five stars . comments ? feel free to e-mail them to : <a href= " mailto : johnbeachem@dependentfilms . net " >johnbeachem@dependentfilms . net</a> for past reviews , movie news , and other fun stuff , visit : <a href= " http : //www . dependentfilms . net " >http : //www . dependentfilms . net</a> * * * * * - one of the greatest movies ever made , see it now . * * * * - great flick , try and catch this one . * * * - okay movie , hits and misses . * * - pretty bad , see it only if you have nothing better to do . * - one of the worst movies ever made . see it only if you enjoy pain . 
