BETWEEN THE TEMPLES
(Check out Chris Reed’s Between the Temples movie review, in theaters August 23. Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.)
A lyrical ode to love in all its mystifying wonder, director Nathan Silver’s Between the Temples combines evocative 16mm cinematography with intriguing editing to create a an off-kilter, May-September affair with shades of Hal Ashby’s 1971 Harold and Maude. Jason Schwartzman (7 Chinese Brothers) stars as Ben, a depressed widower whose job as a synagogue cantor is on a pause of sorts given that he can no longer sing. Carol Kane (iMordecai) plays Carla, Ben’s widowed elementary-school music teacher who reconnects with him one night in a bar. He gets punched, she drives him home, and so begins their quirky adventure.
Ever since his writer wife died about a year ago while walking home (she was drunk and slipped on the ice), Ben has been in freefall. He currently lives with his two moms, sleeping on a pull-out sofa while they do their best to set him up on dates. He’s not that interested, preferring to wallow in misery, throw himself into the street hoping to be run over, or drink away his sorrows.
Carla is much older and a bit adrift, as well. She lives alone; her adult son is elsewhere. Her chance encounter with Ben awakens a long-dormant curiosity about the Judaism of her ancestors. Though she considers herself ethnically Jewish, her married last name is O’Connor and she has long lived as an atheist. But the fact that she never had a bat mitzvah now weighs heavily on her. Who better to teach her what she needs to know than a depressed cantor in need of a task to keep his mind busy? And so she and Ben begin to spend time together.
Meanwhile, Ben’s mothers—Caroline Aaron (Theater Camp) and Dolly De Leon (Triangle of Sadness)—continue their matchmaking machinations, and the best prospect they see on the horizon is Gabby (Madeline Weinstein, Queen of Glory), daughter of Rabbi Bruce (Robert Smigel, Marriage Story), who happens to be Ben’s boss. Gabby actually bears a strong resemblance to Ben’s dearly departed Ruth, at least from what we can see on a book jacket, and when she develops an interest in the deceased woman’s writing, she and Ben briefly share a sexual spark. But that’s not where this film is headed.
Instead, Silver (Thirst Street) has other things on his mind, filling his narrative with dreamlike asides delivered through sped-up footage, sudden quick cuts, and elliptical shifts in visual perspective. What most interests him is the way in which wounded people both create more damage as they struggle to heal and stumble towards recovery almost in spite of themselves. Ben is no angel, even if he means no direct harm. Gabby is also damaged, and the consequences of their almost-coupling will do her no favors.
But at the center of this dramedy are Ben and Carla and their not-quite-romance. They grow closer and develop a real bond, but it’s not quite clear that they want the same things. Watching them discover a friendship that brings meaning to their sad lives is often quite moving.
Nevertheless, not all of Silver’s cinematic playfulness works equally well. The magical realism of certain sequences, while lovely in and of itself, sometimes feels like a distraction. Cinematographer Sean Price Williams and editor John Magary—collaborating with Silver for the third and second time, respectively—each bring their considerable talents to bear to make the artistic vision work, and it mostly does, if not always.
For all the derring-do of the mise-en-scène, however, the best parts of the movie are located squarely in the performances of Schwartzman and Kane. They are equally watchable, both together and separately. Enjoy their chemistry, and the restoration at the heart of the story.
– Christopher Llewellyn Reed (@ChrisReedFilm)
Sony Pictures Classics; Between the Temples; Nathan Silver
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