Directed by: Nathan Silver
Written by: Nathan Silver and C. Mason Wells
Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Carol Kane, Caroline Aaron, Dolly De Leon, Madeline Weinstein, and Robert Smigel
Runtime: 111 minutes
‘Between the Temples’: Schwartzman and Kane offer keen performances in this eccentric comedy
Benjamin Gottlieb (Jason Schwartzman) is having a bad day.
While sitting in a local Upstate New York bar, minding his own business, and drinking a mudslide, Ben overhears a stranger poking fun at him. Ben, to his credit, confronts the bully but is knocked to the floor with one punch.
Ooof.
A random patron (Carol Kane) comes to Ben’s aid, but in a rare moment of fate, Ben realizes that this Good Samaritan is his elementary school music teacher, Mrs. O’Connor, who now goes by her maiden name, Kessler. Carla Kessler, a grandmother, doesn’t remember Ben from all those years ago. Still, they awkwardly connect – in the here and now - through the aforementioned violent circumstance and their scholastic link.
Let’s go back to Ben. He is having a bad YEAR.
This 30-or-40-something is depressed. Ben is no longer together with his wife, Ruth. (The audience doesn’t immediately know why, but we discover the reason later.) He moves back home with his two moms, Meira (Caroline Aaron) and Judith (Dolly De Leon), and even attempts suicide.
Ben looks for some spiritual relief as a cantor for Rabbi Bruce (Robert Smigel) at Temple Sinai but, when called upon, fails to sing in front of the shul. However, when Carla, in her 60s or 70s, shows interest in having a bat mitzvah (because she never had one as a kid), Ben and she have a harmonious opportunity to support one another through her future celebration and music.
Director Nathan Silver’s “Between the Temples” is music for Schwartzman and Kane fans. Their characters form an unlikely new friendship in this curious, eccentric comedy that’s driven and filled by purposely awkward, character-driven discourse as Ben and Carla attempt to overcome their individual challenges.
Sad sack Ben has much more internal work to do than Carla. He needs a team of therapists. Moving in with your parents, who provide comfort (and a roof) but little practical advice, 20 years after graduating from high school is an obvious tell.
As Ben, Schwartzman, one of Wes Anderson’s go-to actors, is the polar opposite of the fearless, overconfident Max Fischer from his breakout performance in “Rushmore” (1998). Here, a directionless Ben wallows in grief and self-pity and in a way, reminds this critic of Richie Tenenbaum (Luke Wilson), the struggling tennis pro in another Anderson classic, “The Royal Tenenbaums” (2001).
Ben is down 40-LOVE in the game of life, but he discovers purpose by mentoring Carla on her bat mitzvah journey.
By design (or through possible financial limitations), the film looks and feels made on a shoestring budget and possibly filmed with an iPhone or two. Silver and cinematographer Sean Price Williams’ cameras (or phones) bob and weave on location in Kingston, NY, a small town with a population of 24,000, located 100 miles north of New York City through a local bar, restaurant, a couple of homes, and a temple. The photography often/sometimes seems grainy, where the natural light isn’t enough. The look is distracting at first, but it weirdly gives the story authentic vibes, as if Ben and Carla’s tale could almost be a random documentary. Ben and Carla even talk with their mouths full at lunch, including the former player spitting out his food on the table.
The camerawork and comedic banter use a similar style that made “The Office” (2005 – 2013) famous (my apologies, I’ve only seen a handful of the original British production episodes). Uncomfortable exchanges frequently occur, and the subsequent big-screen image will then settle on a close-up of a character’s face for a reaction shot. De Leon, Aaron, and Smigel play along with the gags nicely, and so does Madeline Weinstein, who is Gabby, a potential love interest for Ben.
For lonely Ben, Carla becomes a friendly fixture of time, so she could be the cure on his way to recovery! The screenplay spins most of Ben’s backstory yarn in the first act, but Carla’s reveal twirls throughout the second and third, and Kane gracefully works through it beautifully.
Speaking of grace, Smigel offers a sturdy, foundational supporting performance as the ever-steady rabbi, lightyears away from his maniacal Triumph the Insult Comic Dog alter-ego.
Still, “Between the Temples” might have shades of Triumph in spirit because Silver, Schwartzman, Kane, Smigel, and the cast aren’t afraid to say, “I keed. I keed.”
Jeff’s ranking
2.5/4 stars
