Making fun of Jews can be a touchy subject, especially when many of the people doing it are not Jews themselves. So it is understandable that included in the press notes for Keeping Up with the Steins is a letter from the film’s rabbi consultant essentially saying that it is all in good fun. Unfortunately, the press packet doesn’t contain a similar letter from their comedian consultant to assure us of the same thing.
When a movie’s biggest laughs are from the sight of Garry Marshall’s naked butt and a young boy’s unusual method for getting over a fear of public speaking, then the movie doesn’t have much coming from the comedy side of the effort. So it will need to be one heck of a story of personal growth to stand up on its own.
Keeping Up with the Steins starts out by being about conspicuous consumption and parental competitiveness surrounding bar mitzvah parties in the community of wealthy Jewish Angelenos. Things kick off with a Titanic-themed party for Zachary Stein (Carter Jenkins). The party takes place on a rented cruise ship and comes complete with elaborate sets, all-you-can-eat ice cream sculptures, and Kate Winslett. Zachary’s father (Larry Miller) is smug in his certainty that he has completely dominated the year’s bar mitzvah scene and has no problem rubbing it in the nose of former business partner Adam Fiedler (Jeremy Piven).
Adam quickly determines that the upcoming bar mitzvah of his son, Benjamin (Daryl Sabara), must somehow top this one—regardless of what Ben actually wants. Ben, of course, isn’t sure what he wants or what it all means, and his fear of speaking in front of people has kept him from learning the haftorah biblical selections he’ll have to read during his ceremony.
© Miramax Pictures.
This doesn’t strike Ben as enough of a hassle, so he decides to also use the party as an opportunity to try and mend the rift between his father and his grandfather. You see, 20-something years ago, Irwin Fiedler (Garry Marshall) decided that parenthood wasn’t really his style, and ran out on his family. He’s spent the last couple of decades living the hippie lifestyle and is currently living on an Indian reservation with his young girlfriend, Sandy (Daryl Hannah). For some reason, Adam Fiedler is upset by this (though nobody else in the family seems to understand why) and wants nothing to do with his father. A quick edit to the invitation, however, has Grandpa Irwin arriving on their doorstep a full week before the bar mitzvah.
This is a small movie, with small goals. The only person involved with anything much at risk is director Scott Marshall. Up until now his Hollywood career has consisted mostly of bit parts in movies directed by his father, Garry Marshall. If Keeping Up with the Steins is any indication, Scott Marshall shares the same slightly sappy inclinations of his father, but so far he lacks the ability to pull it together into a glossy whole, as all of the big flaws in the movie can be laid at his feet. The film lacks a consistent emotional tone, and while the short attention span for any particular topic is endemic to our age, the constant jumping around between the two storylines leaves both without impact.
Although there is an edge of slapstick that shows promise, Marshall manages every time to pull back and cut things short before a good comedic punch is given. Scott Marshall says that his dad fell into the role because they were using Garry for rehearsals (he was the oldest guy Scott knew), but when they had trouble finding an actor willing to do the skinny dipping scenes, they realized Garry was perfect for the role. Perhaps what really happened (for there has certainly been no shortage of geriatric rumps on display in recent years) is that the other actors saw that there was really no reason for the scene. It is just shoehorned in for some cheap laughs but isn’t played for good ones.
As a side note, what does it say about the moral decay of our society that it is completely OK for a moviemaker to present me with Garry Marshall’s hindquarters (twice!) but in the same scene Daryl Hannah’s has to remain cleverly hidden by other objects? It truly is a sad world.
The meandering is made worse by the fact that after taking his time to get to the point, it feels like they suddenly ran out of money and had to wrap everything up in 10 minutes. There is nothing objectionable in the messages of this movie, and if kids (and parents, for that matter) were to pay attention about the meaning of becoming a bar mitzvah, there is something important to be learned regardless of your religion. It’s just too bad that by the time these lessons are presented, it is hard to care about the people learning them.
This may be Garry Marshall’s biggest acting performance ever and he actually does a pretty decent job of it. He comes off as appropriately touching when necessary, but you also have no problem believing that he just up and abandoned his family and is now trying to atone for it.
© Miramax Pictures.
Jeremy Piven, however, seems a poor choice for his role, and casting him didn’t really help Scott Marshall’s efforts. Piven’s standard attitude of poorly restrained annoyance is perfect for the relationship between him and his father, but doesn’t play well in any of the other scenes where we are to believe he is a loving and caring father. Daryl Sabara (most famous from the Spy Kids movies) as Piven’s son Ben comes across as your typical child actor; he does nothing cringeworthy, but also does nothing to indicate that he has a head start on continuing his career into adulthood.
Although Keeping Up with the Steins is not Scott Marshall’s debut film, it is certainly his highest profile to date. The movie, however, offers nothing to make me look forward to his future efforts. It was a low-budget endeavor, but a good filmmaker will produce something that looks better than its budget—and that hasn’t happened.
The ultimate messages of the movie are good for kids and the parents who turn childrearing into a competition, but they’re not so good as to warrant spending the money for a trip to the theater. Even a later viewing on DVD is iffy. It would probably be best to just forget about it altogether or catch it on basic cable in a few years.
If you are considering taking your kids, it does earn the PG-13 rating with the nudity mentioned above, some very mild sexuality, some cursing (though none that really stuck with me), and a scene in which a bunch of 13-year-olds do something that won’t be legal for another eight years.
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Keeping Up with the Steins is a Miramax Pictures release
Limited theatrical release May 12.
Directed by Scott Marshall
Screenplay by Mark Zakarin
Starring: Daryl Sabara, Jeremy Piven, Garry Marshall, Doris Roberts, Jami Gertz
Running time: 99 minutes
Rated PG-13 for some crude language, nudity and brief drug references.
Alex’s Rating: 4 out of 10.
