Direction: Nathan Silver
Country: USA
Directed and co-written by Nathan Silver, the comedy-drama Between the Temples strives to be quirky and offbeat, but ultimately misses the mark. Starring Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane, the film is staged with a bunch of embarrassments that feel more flat than profound.
The story revolves around Benjamin Gottlieb (Schwartzman), a 40-year-old kosher cantor struggling to cope with the death of his wife. He finds a glimmer of hope in Carla Kessler (Kane), his former music teacher, whom he agrees to help prepare for a late-in-life bat mitzvah.
While the premise holds promise, the execution falters. The film never finds its rhythm, frequently losing momentum just when it should be gaining traction. Lacking the wit and style it aspires to, Between the Temples tries to inject energy into situations that implode under the weight of its own excessive pressure.
Despite satisfactory performances from Schwartzman and Kane, the result is disappointingly televisual, culminating in a bewildering climax, full of emotional swings, that is the opposite of a knockoff. Not much in the material stimulates, and the film, sloppily rendered and off-punttingly screwy, doesn’t leave an impression.
