Between the Temples

A few weeks ago, my Apple watch broke as I was exiting the metal detectors at a Dodgers game. As annoying as it was, my good mood allowed me to view it as the loss of an accessory, both replaceable and insignificant. What hurts far more and is far longer lasting is losing an ability that allows you to express creativity. Any talent that you have fostered and developed a fondness for can probably be taken away very easily. Our lifestyle is probably much more fragile than we realize on a day-to-day basis. Nonetheless, a way to bounce back from losing a hobby or calling can be to devote yourself to service. Endow someone else with the ability to do what you no longer can. Such is the premise of Nathan Silver’s newest indie project, Between the Temples.

Jason Schwartzmann plays Ben Gottlieb, a widowed music teacher and cantor who abruptly loses his singing voice. Already experiencing the loneliness of carrying on without his life partner, Ben must now cope with the loss of a lifelong enjoyable pastime. Seeking counsel from the town rabbi (Robert Smigel) does not prove entirely helpful, and his two mothers (Dolly De Leon and Caroline Aaron) can be overbearing. A confrontation at a bar leads Ben to reunite with his grade school music teacher, Carla Kessler (Carol Kane, The Princess Bride). Ben catches up with her and decides to train Carla to sing at her own adult bat mitzvah, curing his loneliness while providing him with the zeal to pass on his abilities to someone else.

On paper, Between the Temples sounds like a downer premise. The film revolves around grief, depression and anxiety. However, it takes all of these negative concepts and wraps them in a hilarious bow, largely thanks to its characters. Ben’s behavior lets you know how he is feeling right off the bat; within the first ten minutes of the movie, he lays down in the middle of the road. When a truck comes along and stops, he begs for it to roll over him, but instead he just ends up getting a ride home. For much of the script, Ben finds himself in one uncomfortable situation after another thanks to misunderstanding and ulterior motives. In the opening scene, his mother suggests that he see a doctor. While the obvious interpretation is that he sees a doctor for health purposes, Ben is quickly ushered into the living room to meet a doctor as a potential date. The protagonist being put on the spot in the opening scene provides a perfect tone-setter for the rest of the comedy.

Nathan Silver uses the camera and visual effects to convey the anxiety each character feels in their social engagements. Not only does he include an abundance of close-ups, but they are accompanied by a slow zoom in to heighten the discomfort. Similarly, many scenes consist of overlapping, sometimes unintelligible dialogue, which contrasts sharply with the often “perfect” dialogue we hear in films. Characters tend to speak clearly and uninterrupted in films, and if they are cut off, they immediately stop talking so that the other person is clearly heard. It tends to work for movies, but our real-life verbal exchanges are not always so seamless. While Silver’s tactic is at first jarring, it quickly becomes very relatable and plays into the theme of imperfection. 

Lastly, Between the Temples possesses a very grainy cinematography, despite the modern digital advancements. Many independent films make this aesthetic choice even today; as before the age of digital cinema, low-budget indies likely had a grainy appearance due to the lack of a budget to clean them up. Though Temples is set in modern day, this nostalgic look fits the film’s premise given that the protagonist reconnects with someone from his childhood and occasionally takes trips down memory lane.

Like many strong comedies, Between the Temples contains its fair share of recurring gags. For instance, a specific bartender/waiter keeps reappearing in different establishments as himself, with his appearance usually following an unrelated laughable moment. By the halfway point of the film, he has Ben’s go-to beverage down pat. Another gag is the basement door at Ben’s place, which won’t stay closed and emits an unsettling creak noise every time it gradually reopens. Just as with the bartender, the door serves as an annoying add-on to a scene where tensions have already been heightened. The creaking noise is often used at the conclusion of scenes that are not even taking place at Ben’s home, again emphasizing the heightened tension of what just occurred.

Many years ago, I had a professor tell me that the reason characters in a sitcom can exhibit mean-spirited behavior towards each other and not alienate the office is because no matter what, there is always an undercurrent of shared love amongst them. In Between the Temples, no one is particularly cruel to Ben; they just put him in a series of uncomfortable situations where he finds himself spitting out non-kosher food, chasing his childhood self on an acid trip, or having an impromptu blind date in his living room. It is clear that despite Ben’s struggles and unpredictable escapades, the people around him want the best for him. Their constant efforts, however bad or misguided, provide the movie with a heartwarming feel and many belly laughs. 

Premise-wise, the closest comparison is Sound of Metal, a Riz Ahmed-led movie about a drummer losing his hearing. However, the mood of Between the Temples more closely replicates a film such as Wes Anderson’s 2001 film The Royal Tenenbaums about a quirky family being reunited under the same roof. While the performances aren’t quite as monotone or deadpan, the characters in Between the Temples exhibit a fondness for one another and just lack the ability to express it; or, at least, successfully.