‘Between The Temples’: Sundance Review

Director: Nathan Silver. US. 2024. 112mins

Small in scale but but big in heart, Between The Temples is buoyed by two endearing performances from Jason Schwartzman as the Jewish cantor suffering a crisis of faith, and Carol Kane as the ageing Bat Mitzvah student who gives him a new lease on life. Making its debut in Sundance’s US dramatic competition, it should resonate with audiences looking for sincere, uncomplicated drama. The presence of Schwartzman and the much-loved Kane should also help it travel further after its subsequent Berlin Panorama berth.

The film is imbued with a sly humour

As the play-on-words title alludes, this film is not so much concerned with religion but with the inner workings of its protagonist. Director Nathan Silver (Thirst Street, The Great Pretender) and co-screenwriter C Mason Wells use they story’s firmly Jewish setting as a backdrop for a wider snapshot of a life in turmoil.

Cantor Ben Gottlieb (Schwartzman) is still loyal to his faith, but it is not giving him comfort. With his sensible shirts, five-o-clock shadow and permanently furrowed brow, Gottlieb is a world away from the whimsical characters the actor has become known for in his collaborations with Wes Anderson. There’s certainly not much whimsy to be found in Ben’s life; with his wife having died a year earlier, he is living back in the upstate New York home of his two mothers, Meira (Caroline Aaron) and Judith (a scene-stealing Dolly de Leon). He has also lost his ability to sing.

Imbued with a sly humour, the film’s screenplay finds comedy in details like overbearing Jewish parents and the double-standards of a Rabbi who will bend the rules for a donation without resorting to cruel satire. There’s a lightness of touch to the performances, with Silver encouraging his actors to improvise on-set. Events may have made Ben something of a sadsack, but Schwartzman ensures there is still a glimmer in his eye, a hint that his lust for life is simply dormant.

Awakening comes not, as his overbearing mothers might be trying to orchestrate, by way of the Rabbi’s newly single daughter Gabby (Madeline Weinstein), but in the surprising form of Carla (Carol Kane), Ben’s old elementary school music teacher who decides she wants to have the Bat Mitzvah she was denied as a 13-year-old. In an intriguing backstory worthy of its own film, Carla’s Austrian immigrant parents were Communist Jews, making her unwelcome at temple and, later in life, she was led away from her faith by her late Catholic husband and her atheist son (played as something of a boo-hiss caricature by Matthew Shear).

Initially reluctant, Ben comes to recognise in Carla something of a kindred lost soul and, as they study together, they develop a warm friendship that begins to see them both open up. It is a delight to to see Kane in such a substantial role and, even if Carla is ultimately there to help Ben realise his potential, the actress brings such vibrancy and charm that she positively shines. 

The film is shot in soft, grainy texture by cinematographer Sean Price Williams, giving a pleasingly low-fi, home video feel to the visuals. That’s underscored by jerky handheld sequences and claustrophobic framing — particularly effective during a boisterous Shabbat dinner which goes awry. It is a shame, then, that Between The Temples does seem lose its way in its final reels, succumbing to narrative cliche. Perhaps the point is that life is messy and surprising, but it just does not chime harmoniously with all that has come before.