“Between the Temples” is a 2024 comedy-drama film directed by Nathan Silver. Starring Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane in the central roles, it follows a Jewish cantor who reunites with his grade school music teacher after decades of distance. The two bond over their shared sense of loss and heartbreak that weighs heavily on their hearts. Just when he starts losing faith, she appears in his life as his new adult Bat Mitzvah student. Through their tales, C. Mason Wells & Nathan Silver’s light-hearted screenplay explores weighty themes like grief, maturity, and self-fulfillment. Besides Schwartzman and Kane, the film stars Caroline Aaron, Dolly De Leon, Robert Smigel, and Madeline Weinstein in crucial supporting roles.
Spoilers Ahead
Between the Temples (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
“Between The Temples,” starring Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane in the lead roles, follows a bittersweet reunion between a cantor and his grade school music teacher, who becomes his new bat mitzvah student.
What happens in ‘Between the Temples’?
“Between the Temples” follows Benjamin ‘Ben’ Gottlieb (Jason Schwartzman), a Jewish man in his early forties who goes through a crisis of faith after his wife, Ruth, dies by slipping on a patch of ice. Although a cantor at a local synagogue, he struggles to find his voice and suffers through a crisis of faith. He moves with his mothers, Meira (Caroline Aaron) and Judith (Dolly De Leon), who try to help him regain his mojo. However, their kind-hearted support and motivation cannot pull him out of his misery. He struggles with suicidal thoughts and attempts to kill himself.
Afterward, Ben enters a bar he frequently visits. He cannot decide what drink to order, but the bartender knows what he will end up ordering. Through that, we get a sense of his routine, patterned life, where he often wallows in misery. Sitting alone sipping his drink, he hears someone making fun of him. He gets angry and walks over to confront this man. Instead, he gets punched in the face. As he slowly recovers, an older woman helps him get on his feet and joins him for a drink. Soon, he realizes that she is Carla O’Connor (Carol Kane), his grade school music teacher, who inspired him to have a career in music and become a cantor.
Carla and Ben’s Meeting
Carla drives Ben home, not knowing his wife is dead. Traumatized, Ben looks at their old home and has a brief flashback about Ruth. Alas, he soon returns to his duties as a cantor, guiding young, impressionable kids for their bar and bat mitzvah. Carla shows up just at the end of his class and opens up about her past. She reveals that her maiden name is Kessler, and she is Jewish by birth. However, she was a red diaper baby, meaning her parents were Jewish communists who did not allow her to have a bat mitzvah. So, at her puberty, she only experienced the excruciating period pain.
Regardless, Carla always wanted to have a bat mitzvah. Ben briefly hesitates, considering her age, but eventually agrees to teach her. He gets a ceremony approved by Bruce, the synagogue’s rabbi. Then, Ben and Carla start spending time together as friends and grow fond of each other. She guides him on ways to manage his stress. Later, he brings a tape of his own bat mitzvah to her house to watch on her VCR. Her friend mistakenly gives him a drugged tea that makes him hallucinate an interaction with his younger self. Since Ben loses his bearings, Carla allows him to stay at her place for the night.
Ben’s Personal Life
While helping Carla with her lessons, Ben ends up going on a date with Leah (Pauline Chalamet), a protestant woman whom he earlier believed to be Jewish. Soon, Rabbi Bruce introduces Ben to his daughter, Gabby (Madeline Weinstein), hoping they start dating. Ben allocates some daily time to Carla and learns about her music record. Soon, Ben joins Carla’s son, Nat (Matthew Shear), and his family for dinner. Ben reveals that he plans to help Carla have her bat mitzvah. Nat finds that ludicrous because he is an atheist but also because of his mother’s age.
Since Ben doubles down on his proposal, Nat asks him not to meddle in their family matters. Ben returns to his usual life, where his mothers wants him to get into a relationship with Gabby. He still cannot get over Ruth’s death and keeps talking about her book. So, Gabby reads it, hoping it would make him interested in her. While they are in a cemetery, she puts on shades and mimics one of Ruth’s saved voice messages, which makes him emotional. After they kiss, he leaves her car and walks back home.
Between the Temples (2024) Movie Ending Explained:
Does Carla have her bat mitzvah with Ben’s help?
After kissing Gabby at a cemetery, Ben returns home as miserable as ever. It does not help him get back his mojo. Instead, it puts him back in a state of crisis. Just as he walks into his room, he receives a call about Carla from the hospital. So, he rushes out to help her and spends the night at her place. The next day, he convinces Rabbi Bruce to prepone Carla’s bat mitzvah ceremony to the upcoming weekend. Then, Ben invites Carla for their Shabbat meal. Bruce also attends it with his family. During the dinner, Ben shares something shocking: he loves Carla.
Upon hearing that, Gabby starts crying inconsolably. Judith accuses Carla of grooming Ben as a kid into this romance. The situation quickly escalates into something far more chaotic. So, Carla walks out of the house. Ben goes after her, trying to convince her to stay longer. As he runs through the streets, we see Ruth in shades, smoking by herself at his old home, just like in the flashback he had before. He slips on the ice and gets injured outside Carla’s house. She takes him inside and heals his wound. The next day, he performs her bat mitzvah ceremony in her backyard, but no one else attends. He joins her as she chants her Torah reading.
Between the Temples (2024) Movie Themes Analysed:
Faith, Loss, and Barriers
Ben’s wife dies an accidental death, which forces him to think about the impermanence of life. His faith does not help him find relief. Instead, it makes him doubt his faith and its validity. He also visits a church to speak with a priest about his views on these doubts. Carla simultaneously makes him question his beliefs and restores his faith. She pushes him to embrace things without worrying about whether they are kosher. Still, she remains curious about the religion that rekindles Ben’s interest in it. While the script shows middle-aged Carla’s interest in a bat mitzvah, it also shows Ben with two middle-aged mothers without any pretense or explanation.
The film presents people conscientiously or unconsciously breaking societal barriers to the point they seem normal. Besides, the script shows a coexistence of life and death in Ben’s life through multiple scenes. It shows Ben meeting Gabby at a ‘cemetery’ where she kisses him. She mimics his dead wife’s voice to reignite life and passion in him. Yet, the same voice brings back the thoughts of death and her loss. On the other hand, Carla makes him feel alive at an age when people expect someone like her to actively think about death.
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