Film

Keeping the Faith

A romantic comedy about two lifelong best friends—a rabbi and a priest—who both fall for the same woman when she returns to their New York neighborhood. It's a warmhearted, gently funny film about faith, friendship, and the messiness of desire. For anyone who likes their romance served with intelligence and genuine affection rather than contrivance.

TMDb rating3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy romantic comedies built on warm, talky friendship and the comic friction of two good men who love each other and also want the same woman, with a faith-and-belonging undertow.

Skip it if you want a brisk, sharp-edged comedy; at over two hours it moves at a leisurely, sentimental clip, and its jokes lean on familiar sitcom rhythms more than on surprise.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a long, unhurried stretch of conversation, banter and small domestic scenes, where the laughs are gentle and the emotional beats arrive slowly rather than all at once.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

When Harry Met Sally...1989

The template for smart, funny romance between friends who actually talk like people. If you loved the banter and the real emotion beneath Keeping the Faith, this is where that sensibility was perfected.

But It's a product of the late '80s in ways that show. Some of the gender politics play differently now, and it's gentler than you might expect.

When Harry Met Sally... poster

Forgetting Sarah Marshall2008

Same DNA—a funny, kind film about good people in a love triangle that actually respects their intelligence. Jason Segel brings the same earnest charm that made Stiller work here.

But It's messier and more adult in its comedy. The humor gets broader and cruder in the second half.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall poster

The Wedding Singer1998

Warm, genuinely funny, and unashamed about being a movie about people finding their way back to each other. Adam Sandler at his most likable, and it has real heart under the '80s nostalgia.

But The comedy is sometimes broad, and the plot hits beats you'll see coming. It's sincere, which means it's occasionally saccharine.

The Wedding Singer poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Keeping the Faith

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Moonlight2016

Both films center on men of faith grappling with desire and identity, and both ask what it means to reconcile who you are supposed to be with who you actually are.

A film about faith, identity, and desire structured as three acts across a man's life. It has the same fundamental question as Keeping the Faith—who are we to the people who knew us first?—but asks it with devastating seriousness and poetry.

But It's quiet and contemplative in ways a comedy about young love is not. The beauty is real, but the reward requires patience.

Moonlight poster
More like this (8)

Hitch2005

A New York romantic comedy with real charm and chemistry between leads. It's got the same spirit of good people trying to navigate desire and connection without being cynical about it.

But It's glossier and more conventional than Keeping the Faith. The romance feels more like a formula than an accident.

Hitch poster

About a Boy2002

Funny, smart, and genuinely touching about the ways people connect across difference. It has the same balance of humor and sincerity, and it actually earns its emotional moments.

But It's less about romance than friendship and family. Some find the tone uneven—it can veer from comedy to real sadness quickly.

About a Boy poster

Crazy, Stupid, Love.2011

A love story that actually cares about the people in it. Multiple perspectives, real dialogue, and an genuine warmth that doesn't feel manipulative. Smartly structured and genuinely funny.

But It's longer than it needs to be, and the ensemble cast means some storylines feel tacked on. The third act tips toward sentiment.

Crazy, Stupid, Love. poster

Bridesmaids2011

A romantic comedy that prioritizes character and humor over formula. It's both hilarious and genuinely moving about friendship and the terror of connection.

But The comedy gets very crude in places, and the plot is fairly predictable. Some characters are written to be simply unpleasant rather than complex.

Bridesmaids poster

Love Actually2003

An ensemble love story that manages to be funny and sincere. If you like Keeping the Faith's idea that love and faith and friendship are tangled together, this explores that across multiple relationships.

But It's got nine different plots, so none gets much depth. Some of it plays as manipulative or simplistic on rewatches.

Love Actually poster

You've Got Mail1998

A very '90s New York romance about people finding each other through connection rather than packaging. Warm, funny, and genuinely about intimacy even though it's a love story.

But The entire film is essentially corporate branding dressed as romance. It's slow, and the chemistry takes a while to build.

You've Got Mail poster

Four Rooms1995

Both use romantic and religious mythology as scaffolding for comedy, and both have a theatrical artificiality that undercuts sentimentality.

A film about desire, connection, and New York on New Year's Eve told through absurdist comedy. It's wildly different in tone but shares the DNA of people trying to connect across mismatched circumstances in a constrained space.

But It's deliberately artificial and staged. The comedy is strange and alienating, and some will find it unbearable rather than charming.

Four Rooms poster

Dekalog1989

Both explore what faith actually means in practice—not as doctrine but as the day-to-day work of living with integrity while desiring things you're not supposed to want.

Ten one-hour films about faith, morality, and desire in a Warsaw apartment building, each organized around a commandment. It's austere and serious where Keeping the Faith is warm and comic, but it's asking the same question: how do people live faithfully in a world that constantly tests faith?

But It's Polish, slow, and utterly without humor. It requires enormous patience and offers no comfort. Some episodes are nearly unbearable.

Dekalog poster

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When Do We Eat?, Blue Film, Priest