“The greatest thing you’ll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return.” So sang Nat King Cole in 1948’s “Nature Boy.”
‘Between the Temples’ Is About the Joys and Hazards of Loving Other Humans
Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane starring in ‘Between the Temples.’ (Sean Price Williams/Sony Pictures Classics)
What Mr. Cole failed to mention was just how challenging that task might prove to be in reality — especially for the more mature folks in the dating pool. As youth fades, baggage collects and personalities harden, finding a love that is mutual, uncomplicated and, well, great, can be a mighty big challenge. And that many-splendored thing is what Between the Temples is all about.
In this ’70s-style drama, Jason Schwartzman plays Ben, a Jewish cantor who has lost his wife, his singing voice and, for the most part, his will to participate in life. One night at the local tavern, while attempting to drown his grief with mudslides (his embarrassing beverage of choice), he stands up to the wrong townie and gets a punch in the chops for his trouble. The person who comes to his aid is the kooky but naturally kind Carla (Carol Kane in dazzling form). Ben recognizes Carla as his former school music teacher and soon, that old thread begins to tie their lives back together.
Ostensibly, the storyline of Between the Temples revolves around Carla’s desire to have a bat mitzvah — a right of passage she was denied by the Communist parents she grew up with. Ben (reluctantly) agrees to help the unconventional septuagenarian with the process and soon he finds himself with a spring in his step that’s been absent since his wife’s sudden death. Ben and Carla impart wisdom, kindness, music and the occasional hallucinogen to each other, and both of their lives are much improved for it.
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Meanwhile, the people closest to Ben — in particular his infuriating stepmother, Judith (Dolly De Leon) — are pushing hard for Ben to find love with the rabbi’s beautiful daughter, Gabby (Madeline Weinstein). Gabby herself is recovering from a major heartbreak and both her and Ben’s parents assume that two sads might make a happy. Gabby is keen to the point of trying to latch on to Ben’s deceased wife in ways that are almost vampiric. She is also entirely incapable of grasping Ben’s friendship with Carla — but she’s not the only one. Carla’s son Nat (a brilliantly objectionable Matthew Shear) is aghast at the mere sight of a younger man in his mom’s home, further complicated by the fact that Ben is wearing Nat’s pajamas at the time.
Between the Temples is one of those movies that’s about nothing and everything all at once. It’s about complicated humans muddling through and grasping for joy wherever they can find it. It’s about being seen and accepted for who you are. It’s about reaching a point in life when being impervious to other people’s judgments becomes perfectly natural. It’s also very funny in a variety of unexpected ways.
If you loved Harold and Maude, Withnail and I and Annie Hall, you’ll appreciate Between the Temples’ low-key but unerringly oddball characters, complex companionships and dry humor. And if you’ve ever loved and lost and then loved again? Between the Temples will leave you renewed and aglow, just like its central characters.
‘Between the Temples’ opens in Bay Area theaters on Aug. 23, 2024.
