{"id":5667,"date":"2014-07-18T00:07:21","date_gmt":"2014-07-18T07:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=5667"},"modified":"2014-07-17T22:51:21","modified_gmt":"2014-07-18T05:51:21","slug":"zach-braffs-new-film-funny-spiritual-existential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2014\/07\/18\/zach-braffs-new-film-funny-spiritual-existential\/","title":{"rendered":"Zach Braff\u2019s new film funny, spiritual, existential"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zach Braff, left, and Jim Parsons at the premi\u00e8re for Wish I Was Here. (photo from facebook.com\/wishiwasherefilm\/photos_stream<\/a>)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Zach Braff is unabashedly and proudly Jewish. One might not deduce that, though, from the caustic attitude toward organized Judaism expressed at the beginning of his new film, Wish I Was Here<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In his second foray as director, a decade after the indie success of Garden State<\/em>, Braff plays a chronically unemployed, 30-something Los Angeles actor with a devoted wife (Kate Hudson) and two children in Jewish religious school. Braff\u2019s Aidan Bloom is avowedly secular \u2013 his father (Mandy Patinkin) chose and pays for the kids\u2019 education as a way of inculcating their Jewish identity \u2013 and Bloom delights in cracking cynical jokes about religion while driving his offspring to school. To underscore his disrespect, Bloom sneaks a hit on a joint after the children get out the car, only to be caught in the act by a rabbi.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the movie\u2019s anti-Jewish at all,\u201d Braff said in a recent interview in a San Francisco hotel. \u201cMy character says, \u2018I\u2019m envious of people with faith. They take comfort in their faith. I wish I had that to get me through this but, since I don\u2019t, I\u2019m a secular man, I need to find something that works for me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cthis\u201d is Aidan\u2019s father\u2019s illness and encroaching death, which throws a financial wrench in the kids\u2019 private education and impels Aidan to become both a good son and a good parent. The film\u2019s title refers to that dual challenge while evoking Aidan\u2019s existential dilemma of needing something to believe in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I was going to do PR for the Jews of America,\u201d said Braff, \u201cI would say, \u2018There needs to be a more proactive way of connecting with Jews who identify with the culture and the humor and the holidays in a way that can tap into the spirituality that they have within themselves. So, any social commentary in the beginning on the yeshivah was meant to show here\u2019s a secular guy who doesn\u2019t know how to tap into his faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"image<\/a>
Concept art for the movie Wish I Was Here. (photo from wishiwasheremovie.com\/gallery\/concept-art<\/a>)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wish I Was Here<\/em>, like Braff himself, blends unwavering self-confidence, clever one-liners and earnest philosophizing. Many viewers will be entertained by the acerbic dialogue and moved by the sentimental family resolution, while others will find Wish I Was Here<\/em> an indulgent tonal pastiche epitomized by a sight gag of an elderly rabbi on a Segway visiting an intensive care unit.<\/p>\n

Braff, of course, became a household name in the 2000s for his role in the long-running sitcom Scrubs<\/em>. Most recently, he starred in the London premi\u00e8re of his original play All New People<\/em>, before making his Broadway debut in the musical adaptation of Woody Allen\u2019s Bullets Over Broadway<\/em>. He co-wrote Wish I Was Here <\/em>with his brother Adam. The New Jersey natives borrowed from the early experiences of a third brother, Joshua (who is also a writer), in developing Aidan\u2019s character.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy brother went to a very strict yeshivah as a child and really was alienated from it, and had a very bad experience,\u201d Braff related. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t until shooting this movie, in the yeshivah we actually shot in, that I saw a Modern Orthodox school. It was a wonderful school, and the rabbis that I talked to were really charming guys and we actually had some interesting conversations about religion, and the kids were all happy and having a wonderful time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Braff leaned forward, warming to his point.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I hope that any strict religious people reading this know that the movie is not condemning orthodoxy at all. It\u2019s saying that, from my point of view, I wished I\u2019d had in my life someone who could help me tap into my own spirituality better, instead of saying, \u2018Here are the rules. Work within these rules.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Wish I Was Here<\/em> has some fun (as noted above) with an aged rabbi. But a younger rabbi \u2013 who Braff described as \u201cthe dream rabbi I wished I met\u201d as a young person \u2013 makes a contribution to Aidan\u2019s journey of reconciliation with his father, an old-school guy who harangues Aidan to provide for his family and abandon his artistic ambitions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took a Hinduism class in college and loved this idea that here are a bunch of allegories and wonderful stories and gods, and you can choose to find your own path,\u201d Braff mused. \u201cIt isn\u2019t so much like \u2018These are the rules.\u2019 It is \u2018Here\u2019s what we believe but find your own way.\u2019 Now, I don\u2019t know much more about Hinduism than an intro to Hinduism class, but I remember that striking me, as someone who\u2019d been raised very strictly Jewish and kosher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Braff financed Wish I Was Here<\/em> through a crowd-funding campaign last year, drawing flak in the process from those who thought well-off celebrities should reach into their own wallets. Without referencing the Kickstarter controversy, Braff makes the case for consumer support of his movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe studio system isn\u2019t going to make a movie about a Jewish family,\u201d he asserted. \u201cA financier wasn\u2019t going to make a movie about a Jewish family. It\u2019s very, very hard to get \u2013 we\u2019re two percent and shrinking \u2013 a movie about Jewish people made. If I made this in the studio system, they\u2019d be like \u2018ix-nay on the ewish-jay.\u2019 I\u2019d have to [dial] it down. So, I hope that Jews will show up because I\u2019d like to make more films about my Jewish experience, and it matters if they go to the theatre or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wish I Was Here<\/em> opens in Vancouver on Friday, July 18.<\/p>\n

Michael Fox<\/strong> is a San Francisco film critic and journalist.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zach Braff, left, and Jim Parsons at the premi\u00e8re for Wish I Was Here. (photo from facebook.com\/wishiwasherefilm\/photos_stream) Zach Braff is unabashedly and proudly Jewish. One might not deduce that, though, from the caustic attitude toward organized Judaism expressed at the beginning of his new film, Wish I Was Here. In his second foray as director, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[787],"tags":[1614,1615,1612,1613],"class_list":["post-5667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv-film","tag-kate-hudson","tag-mandy-patinkin","tag-wish-i-was-here","tag-zach-braff"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}