One Small Step for Jewish Boys

Months and months ago, I went with Katie to see the movie Keeping Up with the Steins specifically so I would blog about it afterwards. When I saw the DVD sitting on the shelf at Blockbuster a couple weeks ago, I remembered that I'd never actually written about it. In case you hadn't heard, it's a movie starring Jeremy Piven as a father who feels pressure to out-do the bash another family threw for their son's bar mitzvah. It takes place in the world where 13-year-olds get party planners and glide into their bar mitzvah afterparty on replicas of the Titanic. (I first got a glimpse of this world while reading one of those New York-themed magazines at the allergist's office freshman year that had a one-page spread of a real-life bar mitzvah boy riding into his party on an elephant. Personally, I've only been to one bat mitzvah so far....There was a dj, but no elephant that I remember.)

The son in the film isn't feeling the whole bar mitzvah thing until his estranged grandfather, played by Gary Marshall, helps him reconnect with Judaism. So I should probably blog about the scene where Marshall asks the boy, "So what's your favorite part of being Jewish?" and the kid replies "I don't know, bagel and lox," to which Marshall retorts, "Well maybe it should be about more than that."

But I'm not. (Although maybe I will later...) 'Cause when I think back about the movie, the thing that actually stands out after months and months is the guy who played the Hebrew school teacher/Cantor. He was hott. Like guy-whom-the-girl-who-works-for-Alan-Rickman-in-Love-Actually-has-a-crush-on gorgeous.

And here's why that's cool. Other than a personal favorite of mine, the Hebrew Hammer, few movies have established a Jewish, male sex symbol. At least one that's actually sexy. And not in a "I'm so schlubby and Jewish isn't it cute the way I have mishap after mishap as I try to seduce the Protestant girl?" No offense, Ben Stiller. You are cute. But this character obviously embrassed his religion (I mean, he was a cantor), and it wasn't one of those times where they go out and find someone who isn't actually Jewish (cough, Hebrew Hammer, cough), but who looks "Jewish enough" for the role. If you pop into the Bronfman center, you'll see that there are all kinds of different-looking people in there, so I like that in this movie someone can play a Jew without having to fit the image of one that a lot of people have in their heads. (At the same time, I like how the Hebrew Hammer shows that the stereotypical Jewish look can be hot, too.)

If you rent the movie, his role was actually really minor, but hey, it got my attention.