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Keeping the Faith | 
| Actors: Blythe Auffarth, Anne Bancroft, Stuart Blumberg, Catherine Lloyd Burns, Lisa Edelstein
Studio: Touchstone / Disney
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.99
Buy Used: $2.77
You Save: $12.22 (82%)
Rating:  153 reviews
Sales Rank: 7174
Format: Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 129 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: DISD20769D
ISBN: 0788824147
UPC: 717951010582
EAN: 9780788824142
ASIN: B00003CXHG
Theatrical Release Date: 2000
Release Date: October 17, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Keeping the Faith, Edward Norton's directorial debut, centers on Jake (Ben Stiller) and Brian (Norton), a rabbi and a priest who've been best friends since childhood. Both find their callings and grow into strong spiritual leaders for their community. The clever and occasionally slapstick comedy as Jake and Ben find their places in the religious community is precisely timed, and the film begins with a bang. Yet when childhood friend Anna (Jenna Elfman)--the perfect woman, a cross between "Jonny Quest and Tatum O'Neal"--finds them after all these years, both men fall for the stunning woman who is married to her career and her vibrating cell phone. But what starts as the making of a great joke (of course, the priest is sworn to celibacy and there's not much of a market for a rabbi married to a gentile) turns into a somewhat mawkish romance with mixed messages about the meaning of faith and the power of love. When Anna and Jake secretly begin a tryst, "just for fun," they of course fall in love, which is where the movie begins to unravel, as Anna is oblivious to the turmoil Jake might be feeling in having to choose between his faith and her. Jake turns into a total schmuck, Brian into a drunken idiot, and every secondary character becomes a cliched stereotype, right down to the yentas in the synagogue and the kindly mentor (director Milos Forman) who guides Brian. However, despite the muck, Norton is surprisingly sympathetic and Elfman is an adorable heroine who helps bring some shining, fun moments to a mediocre film. --Jenny Brown
Product Description
Stiller and norton are childhood friends who grow up on different ends of the religious spectrum one is a rabbi and one is a priest. But when a gorgeous ex-tomboy re-enters their lives all hell breaks loose. Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 06/01/2004 Starring: Ben Stiller Jenna Elfman Run time: 129 minutes Rating: Pg13
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| Customer Reviews: Read 148 more reviews...
 Excellent Direction and Acting Can't Quite Save This Movie November 16, 2008
Media Lover
PROS
Awesome Direction
Deft storytelling
Great Performances all Around (Norton is amazing in his role!)
CONS
Too Long
Muddy Ethical Sermonry
Jenna Elfman
for a realxing time October 7, 2008
Lupus (Hamburg)
A bit unrealistic regarding the presentation of Judaism and Christianity in the movie. But a perfect story about three friends who finally come to terms with their relationships. A perfect love-story. THE urban romance-movie. A perfect Jenna Elfman.
"It's complicated. I'm reading "Dianetics"." September 16, 2008
J. H. Minde (Boca Raton, Florida and Brooklyn, New York)
KEEPING THE FAITH (2000), is a cinematic take on the old joke, "A priest and a rabbi meet this blonde coming down the street. . ." In this case, the blonde is Jenna Elfman (Anna), the priest is Edward Norton (Brian), and the rabbi is Ben Stiller (Jake), three childhood best friends.
KEEPING THE FAITH is very much about how religiously observant people balance the demands of the spiritual life against those of the temporal life; it's also about how people, observant or not, balance the demands of career against those of love and family; and last, but not least, it is about how people who love balance their self-expectations against the expectations they have of their significant others.
Brian and Jake are still best friends, dedicated to working together ecumenically, and dedicated to invigorating their congregants with a desire to become closer to God, sometimes with hilarious consequences.
Jake falls in love with Anna and Anna with Jake, but Jake can't reconcile the idea of a rabbi marrying a non-Jewish woman with the demands of his heart, and the expectations of his synagogue. While Jake struggles with this dilemma, Brian finds himself increasingly attracted to Anna (who loves, but is not in love, with him), and struggles with the demands of his heart versus his vows. When he realizes that Anna is in love with Jake, a crisis ensues.
Since Jake, Brian and Anna all fear confronting themselves and each other with these issues, their lifelong bond becomes strained and their love for each other is put to the test. In the end, all three discover, happily, that "keeping the faith" is in large part a question of having faith in each other.
KEEPING THE FAITH is a nice, fluffy film that showcases the talents of Elfman, Stiller and Norton well, and gives us New York City in summertime at its best.
I'm not even religious and I love this film September 9, 2008
T. Carlson (L.A.)
It is a beautiful story about Faith and what that means to the people who take it seriously. I love the Milos Forman speech about a choice you have to make every day. I love the mingling of very different religions without feeling that any is superior. And the idea that faith should inform your life but not take it over. This is one of those movies I flip to whenever it is on, and I just sent it to my sister who loves Ed Norton but is somewhat afraid of what he might do in a movie with Ben Stiller. She should have some faith that they combine to make something we can all appreciate!
 Power of 3 August 28, 2008
Charlotte Simonsen (Copenhagen, Denmark)
This is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen!!! The greatest threesome in a comedy: Ben Stiller, Edward Norton, Jenna Elfman :-)
PLUS: The Asian karaoke singer is too funny for words...
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