I kinda liked this movie. My wife kinda didn’t. But she was never bored watching it, and I think it’s one of the best performances I’ve seen Jason Schwartzman give (nice that he got away from the quirkiness of Wes Anderson). He plays Ben Gottlieb, who is a temple cantor (for those non-Jews, that’s the singer at a temple). He loses his voice (along with, perhaps, his faith), and flees. He’s a bit suicidal, but when his attempt to be run over by an 18-wheeler fails (the truck driver brings him to a bar), he does what any good Jewish boy would do – gets drunk on mudslides (I would’ve opted for drinks with little umbrellas in them).
Carol Kane is doing karaoke, she gets him a real drink (and real drunk), and hijinks ensue. Well, not really. She just drives him home to his two moms (played wonderfully by Dolly de Leon and Caroline Aaron). He’s living with them, after the death of his novelist wife.
One of my wife’s complaints is that she hasn’t been dead long, and they’re not really letting him grieve. They always seem to be trying to set him up on dates. I just enjoyed the fact that it wasn’t done in the corny way they did it in the first “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” which was ridiculous with the various dinners with bizarre suitors.
The Rabbi is played by Robert Smigel (he’s the brilliant comedy writer who gave us, among many things, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog). He’s playing it straight here, trying to get Ben out of his funk, and set him up with his daughter Gabby (played by Madeline Weinstein, looking like a prettier Natalie Portman).
I like that Ben starts to gravitate more towards hanging out with Carla (Kane), as she was his music teacher in elementary school and she wants a bat mitzvah that she never had. The Rabbi is against this, until he says she’s willing to make a “sizable donation.”
Nathan Silver directed, and co-wrote the script, and they do a great job with awkward moments that feel realistic, and not like a bad sitcom. Yet some of the jokes are old and didn’t quite land (for example, a woman on J-Date who isn’t Jewish, she just prefers a circumcised penis). Another bit that didn’t really land is when Carla and Ben drink tea her roommate made, that gets them wasted. There were also many scenes that would’ve been brilliant, but something small would happen that irked me. An example would be a chaotic dinner scene with all the family, and the craziness going on. I just didn’t buy something Ben does in those moments.
Silver gave us a movie that was so Hal Ashby-esque, although I’ve never been as fond of “Harold and Maude” as everyone else. I did love “The Holdovers” from last year, and this reminded me a bit of that and “The Graduate.”
I did love all the scenes that had Carla’s son (Matthew Shear) showing up and being confused by the friendship of these two, who have a big age difference.
My wife also asked why scenes would fade out with a circle getting smaller and smaller. I think that was a nod to “The Sting.”
Silver gave us a few too many unnecessary close-ups, and he needed a bit more humor for this to be a better sell for audiences. I’m afraid it’s going to be mostly enjoyed by Jewish moviegoers.
I think it has a lot of warmth, and its heart is in the right place.
It’s not getting the biggest release, but will be at a handful of theaters around town, including my favorite – the Angelika Film Center.
3 stars out of 5.
Photo: Getty Images