Between the Temples

CinemaSerf

2024-08-27

⭐ 7

"Cantor Ben" (Jason Schwartzman) has recently become a widower and is struggling to get on with his job working for Rabbi "Bruce" (Robert Smigel) at the Sinai Synagogue. He has one too many chocolate-laced "Mudslingers" in a bar one evening and that leads to an altercation that leads to a reunion with "Carla" (Carol Kane). Though neither recall immediately, it transpires that she used to be his childhood music teacher. Next thing we know, she has turned up at his synagogue where she declares her Jewish heritage and that she wishes to have her Bat Mitzvah. I didn't know that took over year to s…

The burdens of rules, conventions and traditions can weigh heavily on us, especially when they’re not serving us, allowing us to be ourselves or taking much of the joy out of life. The impact can affect us in many ways, too, including emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, physically and socially. So it is for Benjamin Gottlieb (Jason Schwartzman), a disillusioned forty-something cantor/Bat Mitzvah instructor at a conservative synagogue north of New York. He’s experiencing a crisis of faith as a result of the rough year he’s recently undergone, having lost his wife and now facing the prosp…