Movie Presentation Keeping the Faith 2000

Keeping the Faith: Presentation Outline

"Keeping the Faith" is a comedy movie that shows relationship between love, friendship and faith. The writer Stuart Blumberg and director Edward Norton have presented a story of three friends who belong to different faiths but fall in love due to close friendship. Overall it is a thought provoking and a romantic comedy drama movie which shows the complexities of relations between the faiths/religions of different people.

The two central characters of this comedy drama are the rabbi and priest (Frederic and Brussat, 2012) namely Jake and Brian. Jake is a "Jew" and Brian is a "Roman Catholic." These two young adults, who grew up together in the New York City, take very much interest in each other's religion and have committed their lives to their faiths. Anna is their childhood neighbor and junior school friend who meets them after several years.

In these two decades time, Brian has turned into a priest and is serving with Father Havel at the Catholic Church. On the other side, Jake is now a rabbi who works at a synagogue with Rabbi Lewis. Anna is now a beautiful woman so both Jake and Brian start developing feelings of love for Anna. Anna has friendship with both of them but she likes only Rabbi (Jake).

The biggest problem of Jake is his mother's wish to marry a very nice Jewish girl. Jake's family had already disowned his brother because he married a gentile (non-Jewish). His congregation also expects same from him and it is also important for him if he wants to succeed Rabbi Lewis. However, Jake surprises everyone by declaring that he loves Anna.

Anna and Jake keep their love as a secret from their friend Brian. Brian on the other hand also loves Anna but knows that he is not allowed to marry due to celibacy (Cardullo, 2012). He remains hiding his feelings and keeps thinking of quitting his profession and make relationship with Anna.

Later he comes to know that Anna and Jake love each other so he moves back and realizes that he should maintain a strong relationship with God. Anna starts taking classes of Judaism so that she can convert and marry Jake. Jake ends up in his true love "Anna" and Brian ends up in his love in God (Hanson, 2002). The movie has a happy ending when three friends once again come close together.

Answers

A1

The two religions depicted in the film are "Judaism" and "Christianity."

A 2

Both of the characters face the challenge of their individual desires and the expectations of community from them (Wright, 2007). Brian learns that he has commitment with God and decision of being unmarried for life time is not an on and off decision. Jake on the other side declares his love for Anna.

The relationship between Anna and Jake raises the issue of Jewish and Christianity intermarriage in the movie (Wright, 2007). The message of the film is that preference should be given to the personal demands instead of following the faith. I do not agree with the message of the movie because I believe that the role of religious characters like "priest" and "rabbi" are models for us. If these models start giving preferences to their desires then it will not portray a good image of religions.

A3

The surprising thing about a movie is that a Jewish and a Christian who belong to different cultures and faiths are best friends. The film portrays the idea that it is not necessary to follow the traditional way of making relations. There is a need for change and people of different faiths can also be together if they love each other. Moreover, the movie also supports the idea that it is acceptable to convert to a new faith if religion is a hindrance between the relations of two people.

A4

There is disconnect between rabbi and his congregation is in the scene when Jake starts sleeping with Anna. He knows well that he is a Jew and his act will affect his relationship with his mother and his congregation but he still continues it. In case of Priest, disconnect between him and his congregation can be seen when he wants to leave his profession and marry Anna. He gives preference to his emotional feelings resulting in a religious conflict.