Review of Keeping the Faith (2000) by Bryan W — 15 Aug 2010

Edward Norton's directorial debut ends up being an enormous breath of fresh air for a formulaic genre that, despite the fact that its profitability would keep more coming out, was on its last legs: romantic comedy.

The fact that the premise has served as the setup for innumerable jokes, the tone maintained is consistently playful without becoming ridiculous and carried by a plot with serious undertones than never become rigid or instructive.

Since Norton is always reliably genius in any role he's given, his capacity for comedy shown here shouldn't shock anyone, but Ben Stiller, who is usually given to caricature and ridiculousness, manages to drop his act and do some actual acting.

Though it suffers from the kind of format that almost every romantic comedy does, this is forgivable as the plot has almost no other way to unfold. Given the script's religious nature, it's at least good to see that religion is at the root of the film's conflicts while simultaneously serving as a non-intrusive moral compass for the characters, rather than romantic developments occurring simply because the main couple of the film needs to have a fight.

While most men groan at the prospect of watching any romantic comedy, this one is funny enough and good enough to impress people of both sexes, which is a rare feat indeed.