Keeping the Faith

Keeping the Faith is a 2000 comedy-drama film, written by Stuart Blumberg, directed by Edward Norton and starring Ben Stiller, Jenna Elfman and Norton. The film was released by Touchstone Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment, in association with Triple Threat Talent on April 14, 2000. If you have to believe in something, you might as well believe in love. (taglines)

Anna Reilly

 * I work harder than God! If he had hired me, he would have made the world by Thursday.

Father Brian Kilkenney Finn

 * The truth is, I don't really learn that much about your faith by asking questions like that... because those aren't really questions about faith, those are questions about religion. And it's very important to understand the difference between religion and faith. Because faith is not about having the right answers. Faith is a feeling. Faith is a hunch, really. It's a hunch that there is something bigger connecting it all... connecting us all together. And that feeling, that hunch, is God. And coming here tonight, on your Sunday evening... to connect with that feeling, that is an act of faith. And so all I have to do is look around the room at this packed church... to know that we're doing pretty well as a community. Even if all of you failed my pop quiz miserably.
 * Sometimes we don't see certain things until we're ready to see them in a certain way.

Rabbi Jacob "Jake" Schram

 * God was showing off when he made you.

Paulie Chopra (Indian bartender)

 * May those who love us, love us. And those who don't love us - may God turn their hearts. And if he cannot turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles, so that we may know them by their limping.

Dialogue

 * Jake: Let me just say... Oy.
 * Brian: Amen to your oy.


 * Indian Bartender: Let me guess. Your old lady got fed up because you're out here chasing the skirt so she took these little ones and left you.
 * Brian: It's a little more complicated than that.
 * Indian Bartender: Sure it is. Everyone thinks his story is the one with a twist. Well let me tell you, I've heard just about everything there is to...
 * [Brian unzips his jacket... revealing his priest's collar]
 * Indian Bartender: Holy shit.
 * Brian: Exactly.


 * Brian: You're a Sikh, Catholic Muslim with Jewish in-laws?
 * Indian Bartender: Yes. Yes. It gets very complicated. I'm reading Dianetics.
 * Brian: Don't blame you.


 * Brian: Who is the coolest woman you and I have ever known, ever.
 * Jake: That's easy. Anna Reilly, eighth grade. No question.
 * Brian: You got it.
 * Jake: What? She called you? Anna Reilly called you?
 * Brian: Yeah. Totally out of the blue.
 * Jake: Why?
 * Brian: 'Cause she's coming to New York, uh, for work... and she wanted to get together with us. She just looked me up.
 * Jake: Really? Anna Reilly. What is she doing now?
 * Brian: She - She's, like, analyzing synergies, or synergising analogies, or, or some such thing. I couldn't follow it. She's, like, this very high-powered business - You know.
 * Jake: Woman?
 * Brian: Woman, yes. Thank you.
 * Jake: Wow. And you told her about us?
 * Brian: Yeah. She flipped, in a - in a good way. You know, I mean, she laughed for about ten minutes, but she was excited.
 * Jake: Man, that is so cool.
 * Brian: I know.
 * Jake: I wonder why she called you.
 * Brian: What do you mean?
 * Jake: No, I mean, she called you.
 * Brian: What, are you in the eighth grade still?
 * Jake: What? That's a legitimate question. I just - I mean, we're both listed.
 * Brian: Finn before Schram, okay? You're ridiculous.
 * Jake: That's a good point. Alphabetical.


 * [Brian, a celibate priest, confesses his love for Anna, to Jake's astonishment]
 * Jake: I mean, she's like your sister!
 * Brian: Thank you for adding new depth to my confusion.

Taglines

 * If you have to believe in something, you might as well believe in love.

Cast

 * Ben Stiller - Rabbi Jacob "Jake" Schram
 * Edward Norton - Father Brian Kilkenney Finn
 * Jenna Elfman - Anna Reilly
 * Anne Bancroft - Ruth Schram
 * Miloš Forman - Father Havel
 * Eli Wallach - Rabbi Ben Lewis
 * Hollan Taylor - Bonnie Rose
 * Lisa Edelstein - Ali Decker
 * Rena Sofer - Rachel Rose
 * Bonhi Elfman - Howard the Casanova
 * Brian George - Paulie Chopra (Indian bartender)
 * Ron Rifkin - Larry Friedman
 * Susie Essman - Ellen Friedman