Between the Temples
Ben Gottlieb (Jason Schwartzman) is the cantor at the Sinai Temple, but since his wife died in an accident, he’s lost the ability to sing. Having unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide, Ben enters a bar, gets into a drunken confrontation and is rescued by Carla Kessler (Carol Kane), who he recognizes as his childhood music teacher Mrs. O’Connor. When Carla decides to join Ben’s mitzvah class, never having had the opportunity to have her own bat mitzvah, their relationship grows “Between the Temples.”
Laura's Review: B-
Cowriter (with his "Thirst Street" collaborator C. Mason Wells)/director Nathan Silver led his cast with a ‘scriptment,’ a treatment that allowed the actors to improvise dialogue to scripted situations, something that both allows the cast to sparkle and yet gives the film a loosey goosey, somewhat unfinished quality. Cinematographer Sean Price Williams’ ("Good Time," The Sweet East") decision to shoot on old Kodak film and push it up two stops to give it what he calls ‘a wintery, soft light’ but which often looks overexposed and use a boxy aspect ratio which makes close-ups overwhelming also contributes to that vibe, but the sharp work by Schwartzman, Kane and Caroline Aaron and Dolly De Leon as Ben’s moms makes this a quirky, sometimes cringey, entertainment.
We first meet Ben in the home of his birth mother, Meira Gottlieb (Caroline Aaron), and her partner Judith Gottlieb (Dolly De Leon), a fanatical convert to the Jewish faith who is also a board member of the temple. He’s being introduced to a Dr. Plotnick, and as he wonders why, he’ll learn she is a single cosmetic surgeon named Rachel (Annie Hamilton), invited as a prospective match for him. Both mothers are nudging Ben to move on (and probably hoping move out) after a long mourning period, Meira gently, Judith more overtly.
At Temple, Ben tries to resume his duties, but finds he cannot, walking out. Rabbi Bruce (Robert Smigel) doesn’t mind, because he enjoys singing himself (and as Ben also suggests, his mothers are big financial supporters, so he is kept on). He does continue with his mitzvah lessons, but is oddly reluctant to take on Carla until she tells him she was unable to have one mere decades after it was first instituted for women and that she wishes to reconnect with her Jewish faith. He’ll assign her a Torah portion based on her birthday, discovering the lessons will be the same as his were.
But their relationship spills outside the temple, into a restaurant where Clara shocks Ben by ordering a non kosher meal for him, and then to a marijuana parlor. He’ll spend the night, dressed in her husband’s pajamas as she protectively sleeps on the floor next to him, a situation that freaks out her son Nat (Matthew Shear) when he arrives with his family the next morning to find a much younger man in his dad’s sleepwear. Then Judith begins to puppeteer again, introducing Ben to the Rabbi’s daughter, Gabby (Madeline Weinstein), whose own anxiety is evident in her nail biting.
While the two spend time together, we also wonder if Ben is looking for a third mother in Clara, who he is obviously more attached to. Everything will come to a head at a Shabbat dinner hosted by Judith and Meira with Ben, the Rabbi’s family (whose wife looks like a client of Dr. Plotnick’s) and Clara when Ben makes a major announcement via a game of telephone.
One can detect wisps of “The Graduate” and another, more obvious film (which would be a spoiler to name), in “Between the Temples,” with its adult cantor reverting to childhood as he climbs out of despair seeking direction. The trio of mother figures in the film couldn’t be more different and the actresses who play them are all pitch perfect, De Leon pushy and manipulative, Aaron maternal and comforting, Kane guiding and supportive. Schwartzman spirals quickly, clawing his way out of it in a messy fog. Smigel is fun support as the confident, self-satisfied Rabbi.
After its raucous climax capped off by Meira’s encouragement from a balcony, the film lands gently, honoring the religion at its core in a sweet, moving moment that finally dispenses with its aggressive, in-your-face cinematography. But it is also inconclusive. “Between the Temples” is a rough gem which would have benefitted from a bit more polish.
Robin's Review: B-
Cantor Ben Gottlieb (Jason Schwartzman) is in a crisis of faith and has lost his voice. Then, a blast from his past, his old music teacher, Mrs., O’Connor (Carol Kane), re-enters his life. She wants to train for her Bat Mitzvah and insists that he be her teacher in “Between the Temples.”
Ben, in the past year, has lost his wife and now questions his faith. He goes to a bar to drown his sorrow, picks a fight and gets punched in the nose. His school music teacher helps him up and buys Ben a drink. Now using her single name, Carla Kessler, she has decided to have her Bat Mitzvah with Ben as her teacher.
Of course, Ben resists, with the claim that she is too old. She goes over his head to Rabbi Bruce (Robert Smigel) and he has no problem. Ben has to teach her, This is where the morose and troubled Ben gets a new infusion of life from an unexpected source – Carla.
Right from the start, with the little I knew about “Between the Temples,” my hope was that it NOT be a “Harold and Maude (1971)” clone. Unfortunately, it sorta-kinda is. That said, we get a solid, somber performance by Jason Schwartzman as a man in grief over his lost wife, sparking his crisis of faith.
Much like Ruth Gordon in the ’71 film, Carla is an earth goddess who is comfortable in her own skin – except with her overbearing son, Nat (Matthew Shear), who thinks her Bat is a stupid idea. This son’s intrusion felt unnecessary and almost cruel, especially with the life energy of Carla.
Things go as expected but it is the energetic and warm performance by Carol Kane that makes “Between the Temples” an “unorthodox” comedy.
Sony Picture Classics releases "Between the Temples" in theaters on 8/23/24.
