By David Elliott
MOVIE CRITIC

May 25, 2006

'Keeping Up With the Steins” will not bring on a Pavlovian foam of anti-Semitism, but there are minutes – long, stretched minutes – when you might easily think: Enough already.

It's about a bar mitzvah boy, Ben Fiedler (Daryl Sabara), terrified of the coming ceremony. And why not? His dad, Adam (Jeremy Piven), is a rich Hollywood agent (“pimp to the stars,” someone says), frantic to overtake and surpass the mitzvah madness of his chief rival, Arnie Stein (Larry Miller). Stein staged his kid's coming-of-age on the Queen Mary with a “Titanic” theme and nubile mermaids.

In the story, a sitcom fish smoked for serving at Canter's deli in L.A., Ben proves a budding man, even a mensch. He uses the big occasion to get his dad, a fanatical achiever still boiled by primal angers, reconciled to the long-absent grandfather, Irwin (Garry Marshall). Irwin's ex, gentle Rose (Doris Roberts), smiles among the kvetchers while meeting her own quota of Yiddish terms (she has the lead “Oy”).

MOVIE REVIEW “Keeping Up With the Steins” Rated PG-13; Opens tomorrow

Also smiling is Adam's wife, Joanne (Jami Gertz), a warm hearth of ethnicity next to the dumb, blond shiksa wife of Arnie Stein. You can feel jokes being inserted right under your tongue for easy laughter. Marshall tends to preside. He would clearly love to do a long rip of shtick worthy of a Friars Club roast, complete with brisket.

Not all the gags sag, though many are delivered that way. Director Scott Marshall, son of Garry, frames actors as if doing a police lineup and uses the camera like a lawn tool. Scott also directed a film set in a laundromat, and here his fluff cycle includes Dick Benjamin as the rabbi (pushing his book, “The Passion of the Jews”) and Daryl Hannah as a New Age chick who skinny-dips with Irwin and goes by the name Sacred Feather.

While never matching the wonderfully disastrous bar mitzvah in “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz,” “Keeping Up” elicits some chuckles as it pads to obvious payoffs. Garry Marshall has such smooth timing that you expect him to do a sand dance while crooning “Hava Nagilah.” And Sabara is a charming star, not pushing the pet-me pedal like so many kid actors. On the other hand, the ritual boys' raid on the home bar, leading to throw-ups, is beyond rescue.

Though espousing Jewish tradition, the movie keeps the showbiz faith. On Ben's big day, after he delivers the feared Torah recital, he is one-upped by a surprise celebrity. No, not Penny Marshall, but someone for whom an Indian tribal casino and lounge deserves to be built in Israel.

  

 A Miramax Films release. Director: Scott Marshall. Writer: Mark Zakarin. Cast: Garry Marshall, Daryl Sabara, Doris Roberts, Daryl Hannah, Richard Benjamin, Jeremy Piven, Jami Gertz. Running time: 1 hr., 37 min.

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