Belief is everything!

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Movie
German title Belief is everything!
Original title Keeping the Faith
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2000
length 128 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Edward Norton
script Stuart Blumberg
production Edward Norton
music Elmer Bernstein
camera Anastas N. Michos
cut Malcolm Campbell
occupation

Belief is everything! is an American comedy film from 2000 with romantic and religious features. The main characters are Edward Norton , Ben Stiller and Jenna Elfman . The premiere date for Germany was on July 20, 2000, for Switzerland on August 24, 2000.

action

The young Catholic priest Brian Finn tells his story to a bartender. He begins when he was close friends as a schoolboy with both the future Rabbi Jake Schram and the boyish Anna Riley before she and her family moved to California . The two men cultivated their friendship and eventually both decided to devote their lives to their religion. At first they are clumsy, then successful: their modern and unconventional methods are very popular in their respective communities. This deviation from tradition is also viewed critically by her superiors.

Jake has a good chance of a promotion, but one thing stands in the way: He's still unmarried, which is unusual for a rabbi. The congregation tries to match him with a suitable woman who naturally belongs to the Jewish faith. After many years, Anna, the childhood friend of the two friends, unexpectedly answers. The successful businesswoman is in New York for a short time and wants to see her two sandpit friends again. The old friendship of the three quickly flares up again and Anna and Brian give Jake moral support in his forced dates with women forced on him.

One evening Jake ends up in Anna's arms and they sleep together. Due to the complicated circumstances, the two decide to have an affair that they (also from their mutual friend Brian) want to keep secret. Meanwhile, he himself is in conflict, because despite his celibacy , he has fallen in love with Anna.

Anna confesses to Jake that her feelings for him are now strong and that she would turn down a promotion in San Francisco herself to stay with him in New York. He reacts cautiously. A dispute breaks out between the two of them about whether the relationship between a non-Jewish businesswoman and a rabbi can last. Jake breaks up with her.

When Anna crying asks Brian for advice, Brian misinterprets the situation: He thinks she secretly loves him too and tries to kiss her. When she clarifies the truth to him, he is shocked that his friends didn't tell him and that he didn't notice either. Furious, he confronts Jake and begins to doubt his calling as a priest.

After all three have not spoken to each other for a while, first Jake and then Anna seek reconciliation with Brian. Despite his good advice, Jake doesn't want to accommodate Anna. After his mother suffered a TIA , Jake confesses to his community that he has withheld the woman he loves from them because he believes no one will understand a relationship with a non-Jewish woman. Still, he gets his promotion. Anna has also accepted her promotion and is about to leave town. Brian finally convinces Jake to stand up for his love, but an overzealous security guard won't let him into Anna's office building. In front of her colleagues, Jake makes a declaration of love from the office building opposite. At the opening of a dance and karaoke room for both religious communities, they meet Brian, who has recovered, and celebrate their happy ending together : Anna admits that she has been taking Jewish convert classes for a long time .

background

  • Director, producer and leading actor Edward Norton dedicated the film to his mother Robin Norton, who died in 1997 of a brain tumor.
  • The screenwriter and co-producer Stuart Blumberg has a guest role in the film as a member of Anna's team.
  • Jenna Elfman's husband, Bodhi Elfman, plays the lover in the spicy scene in the office building across the street .

criticism

  • Lexicon of international film : “A successful comedy that deals with its subject in a tasteful way, but without deepening it sufficiently. The weaknesses of the film lie in the not very elegant and congruent first direction of the actor Edward Norton. "
  • Filmspiegel.de: “After extremely successful appearances as an actor in unusual roles, Edward Norton presents a convincing directorial debut with“ Faith is everything! ”. The story about the two young men who both strive for a relationship with the same woman, but both cannot have them, is refreshing, very amusing due to numerous swipes at religious absurdities, and all of this on a high level. "
  • Markus Aicher writes for br-online : “What sounds like the constellation of an old-fashioned joke has actually turned into a charming comedy about faith / love / hope in New York City. With his directorial debut […] Edward Norton […] made a slightly lively film about the complicated love triangle between three friends. With great actors [...], a few nice slapstick acts and lots of humor, he tells a wonderfully romantic story. "
  • Moviemaster.de: “Edward Norton's directorial debut is a successful message about friendship and love. In a funny, sensitive and very natural way, he tells the story of the special three-way relationship. The main actors act very believably and you believe that they are priests with ideals and ideas or a career woman. A story as it will often occur in normal life. At least more often than you think. "
  • The German Film and Media Evaluation FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the title valuable.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Belief is everything! in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used , accessed on April 14, 2012
  2. ↑ Filmspiegel.de
  3. ↑ br-online ( Memento from November 5, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ moviemaster.de

Web links