arts & entertainment

Something To Believe In

Zach Braff's new movie, Wish 1 Was Here, is comedic, spiritual, existential
and sentimental — with a Jewish family at its center.

Michael Fox
Special to the Jewish News

Z

ach 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, a
decade after the indie success of Garden
State, Braff plays Aidan Bloom, a chroni-
cally unemployed, Jewish, 30-something
Los Angeles actor. He has a devoted,
hardworking wife named Sarah (played
by Jewish actress Kate Hudson) and
two children (daughter Grace, played
by Jewish actress Joey King, and son
Tucker), both of whom attend a Jewish
religious school.
Braff's character is avowedly secular
— his father, Gabe (played by Jewish
actor Mandy Patinkin), chose and pays
for the kids' yeshivah education as a way
of inculcating their Jewish identity —
and Bloom delights in cracking cynical
jokes about religion while driving his
offspring to school.
To underscore his disrespect, he
sneaks a hit on a joint after the children
get out of the car, only to be caught in
the act by a rabbi.
"I don't think the movie's anti-Jewish
at all," Braff avers in a recent interview
in a San Francisco hotel. "My character
says, 'I'm 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't, I'm a secular man. I need
to find something that works for me:"
"This" is Aidan's father's illness and
encroaching mortality, which throws
a financial wrench in the kids' private
education and impels Aidan to become
both a good son and a good parent.
The film's title refers to that dual
challenge while evoking Aidan's existen-
tial dilemma of needing something to
believe in.
"If I was going to do PR for the Jews
of America:' Braff says, "I would say,
`There 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 them-
selves.
"So any social commentary on the
yeshivah in the beginning was meant to
show: Here's a secular guy who doesn't
know how to tap into his faith."

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July 17 • 2014

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Zach Braff, center, as Aidan Bloom in a scene with onscreen children Tucker (Pierce Gagnon) and Grace (Joey King) in

Wish 1 Was Here

Wish I Was Here, like Braff himself,
blends unwavering self-confidence, clev-
er one-liners and earnest philosophiz-
ing. Many viewers will be entertained
by the acerbic dialogue and moved by
the sentimental family resolution while
others will find Wish I Was Here an
indulgent tonal pastiche epitomized by a
sight gag of an elderly rabbi on a Segway
visiting an intensive care unit.
(The very Jewish cast also includes
Josh Gad as Aidan's brother, Noah.)
Braff, of course, became a house-
hold name in the 2000s for his role in
the long-running sitcom Scrubs. Most
recently, he starred in the London
premiere of his original play, All New
People, before making his Broadway
debut in the musical adaptation of
Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway.
He co-wrote Wish I Was Here with his
brother Adam. The New Jersey natives
borrowed from the early experiences of
a third brother, Joshua (who also is a
writer), in developing Aidan's character.
"My brother went to a very strict
yeshivah as a child and really was alien-
ated from it and had a very bad expe-
rience," Braff relates. "It wasn't 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. The kids were all happy and
having a wonderful time:'
Braff leans forward, warming to his
point.
"So I hope that any strict religious
people reading this know that the movie
is not condemning Orthodoxy at all. It's
saying that, from my point of view, I
wished I'd had in my life someone who
could better help me tap into my own
spirituality, instead of saying, 'Here are
the rules. Work within these rules:"
Wish I Was Here has some fun (as
noted above) with an aged rabbi. But a
younger rabbi — whom Braff describes
as "the dream rabbi I wished I met" as
a young person — makes a contribu-
tion to Aidan's journey of reconciliation
with his father (an old-school guy who
harangues Aidan to provide for his fam-
ily and abandon his artistic ambitions).
"I 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," Braff muses.
"It isn't so much like, 'These are the
rules: It is, 'Here's what we believe, but
find your own way:
"Now I don't know much more about

Hinduism than an Intro to Hinduism
class, but I remember that striking me
— as someone who'd been raised very
strictly Jewish and kosher:'
Braff financed Wish I Was Here
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 for his movie.
"The studio system isn't going to
make a movie about a Jewish family,"
he asserts. "A financier wasn't going to
make a movie about a Jewish family. It's
very, very hard to get — we're 2 percent
and shrinking — a movie about Jewish
people made. If I made this in the studio
system, they'd be like, `Ix-nay on the
ewish-Jay. I'd have to [dial] it down.
"So I hope that Jews will show up
because I'd like to make more films
about my Jewish experience, and it mat-
ters if they go to the theater or not:'

❑

Wish I Was Here is scheduled
to open Friday, July 18, at the
Landmark Main Art Theatre in
Royal Oak. (248) 542-5198; www.
landmarktheatres.com .

