The way this story is told reminds me a lot of one of the sequels to "A Christmas Story" called "My Summer Story," which you might like if you enjoy the story of Maxamillian Glick. "My Summer Story" is about the life and times of second grader Ralphie Parker, about the life lessons he learns and questioning the rules and all of that. Maxamillian Glick examines the same things, though much more so, as it explores one young boy growing up Jewish.
Maxamillian Glick, as his opening joke about the Jewish man at a Chinese temple will tell you, is a stranger in a strange land, that is, the small Canadian Jewish population which he is part of. As a result of this seemingly strange setting, his family tries to instill on him a stronger sense (and with it stricter rules) of being Jewish. Maxamillian is stuck in a situation where his family and Jewish friends appear far too protecting of their identity.
This is funny in the way we see some of Woody Allen's Jewish upbringing in his earlier films (see Radio Days). For example, they way Maxamillian's family always overreacts when their son decides to do something out of the ordinary like skipping breakfast or going to bed early, his parents and grandparents huddle over the bed debating amongst each other whether they should call a doctor or whether he has gotten all essential vitamins and so forth. It is all so aggravating that his family thinks they have to plan everything for their son, to mold him as they see best for him. Like, they expect he'll either be a surgeon or a lawyer, so they bought him a piano when he asked for a bike.
Max is a good piano player, and is teamed up with a young Polish girl named Delia Brzjinski (a very young Faruzia Balk), which Max's parents forbid him to do for fear that mingling with a Polish girl will somehow spoil his Jewish faith (they talk about intermarriages among religions), even though Max isn't doing anything more than making himself a schoolyard friend. Max respects his family, but at the same time, can't figure out why he can't be friends with Delia.
So, even though his parents expect best of him, Maxamillian's family and Jewish community also tries to force absurd rules of him, revealing how their small Canadian Jewish population has made them too protectorate of their heritage. This forces Max, with the help of a new Rabbi, to do some serious thinking about what's right and wrong, despite what the elders say.
It's a nice little family film, though it tends to drag on at parts. I enjoyed Noam Zylberman, the actor who played Maxamillian Glick, although it appears that he has only made few appearances in the lead whereas most of his film and television credits are simply for additional voices. I do admit, he does have a cartoonish voice.
