Keeping Up With The Steins

Cute and fun ;-)
Today I watched this on dvd for the first time. I thought I knew what to expect (I thought it would be like a My Big Fat Greek Wedding type movie with all the cultural trimmings), but it was different to that. It's a nice family movie with a fantastic cast (I especially love Jeremy Piven).

The first scene involves a wealthy family celebrating their sons Bar Mitzvah with a Titanic theme and a titanic expenditure to match. Now the Fiedler family feels they have to live up to the same hype. It's a cute story line about family coming together and not always getting along but it obviously works out well in the end as you'd expect.

I really liked this - I think it's a movie that people of all faiths can enjoy. It's got some great moments in it and some good laughs too. Look out at the end for a surprise performance from an amazing famous Jewish male singer staring as himself. I love it and hope you do too.

Heartwarming Film of Forgiveness and Maturity
At first, this appears to be a movie about a family who wants to outdo another Jewish family by having an even more extravagant bar mitzvah party for their son Benjamin.

But when Benjamin secretly invites his estranged hippie grandfather to the bar mitzvah two weeks early, things take an interesting turn. Over the course of the film, Benjamin develops a bond with his grandfather and begins to understand the true meanings of bar mitzvah and manhood and maturity.

So does Benjamin's father. He learns that becoming a Bar Mitzvah (son of the commandment) is not about having a huge party and outdoing the Steins, it's about becoming emotionally and spiritually mature, something that finally begins to happen to him at his own son's bar mitzvah. In a way, the father also becomes a son of the commandment at the same time his son does.

This is one of the better movies I've seen in a while, much more good natured and heartwarming than most Hollywood offerings.

Humor With a Good Message
I stumbled on to this movie and it is a very good one. In many ways it is like an inside joke as it protrays the Jewish Culture but the story and messages are really broader than that. It borders on satire as it shows Beverly Hills/Brentwood in Calif with all of the joggers, pretension, and trivial value system that is so prevalent there, but beneath this veneer is a heart warming and rather realistic story of a family. It vividly demonstrates that money can buy anything but something of value and the most valuable thing is family. He shows that marriages are complex things and only those two in the marriage really understand it and those on the outside shouldn't make judgements regarding someone else's marriage. This was a story of regrets, mistakes, and foregiveness and shows it is never too late to say "I'm sorry". The interplay between the grandparents was marvelous and could have added a great deal more to the movie had it been expanded. The son's inability to forgive was...

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