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Much like Oliver Stone can't quite seem to get his head out of the ‘60s, director Barry Levinson (Wag the Dog) keeps returning to 1950s Baltimore. This city and period of time has already served as the setting for three of his films - Diner, Tin Men and Avalon – not to mention Levinson's television drama Homicide, although that was set in present-day Baltimore. What would make a person focus that much attention on one specific era? Who cares? Between the two directors, almost a dozen films in as many years that focus on either ‘50s Baltimore or the turbulent ‘60s have been made. And for the most part, these movies have been spectacular, combining to win seven Oscars out of the thirty-two nominations they have received.
While Stone hit a stumbling block with 1993's Heaven & Earth, he rebounded the following year with Natural Born Killers, perhaps realizing that it was time for a change. But not Levinson. With last year's debacle Sphere under his belt, he returns to ‘50s Baltimore for yet another touching, semi-autobiographical tale of a middle-class Jewish family. Oy vey! Granted, Liberty Heights isn't anywhere near as malodorous as Sphere, but the film sure ain't no Avalon.
Set in 1954, Heights' central focus is on the Kurtzman family. They live in the northwest section of the city, known as Liberty Heights, in a time marred by both McCarthyism and racism. The main character is Ben (Ben Foster), a high school senior who also narrates the film. He explains at the film's beginning that his entire neighborhood consisted of Jews and, as a result, he always assumed as a young boy that the whole world was Jewish. His first experience of `the other kind' (as his mother referred to gentiles) was at a friend's house during an awkward lunch that consisted of white bread and luncheon meats, both mysterious foods to the lad.
Heights basically consists of three stories. The first follows Ben's blossoming friendship with a black girl named Sylvia (Rebekah Johnson) in his homeroom class at his recently segregated school. Both kids know that a potential romantic relationship would be damned by both of their families, not to mention society, but they continue to secretly see each other.
The second story involves Ben's father Nate (Joe Mantegna, The Rat Pack), who runs numbers as well as a failing burlesque theater downtown. Nate is forced to deal with the threat of a state lottery, which would kill his racketeering business. He also is forced to do some creative financing after an up-and-coming dope pusher named Little Melvin (Orlando Jones, Mad TV) hits his number on a $50 bet.
Heights' third and most unnecessary story concerns Ben's older brother Van (Adrien Brody, Summer of Sam) as he tries to fit in with the gentile crowd to win the affections of an icy WASP princess (model Carolyn Murphy) during a Halloween party. The girl, Dubbie, already has a smarmy beau with a penchant for drinking and driving, but Van doesn't know this until later on in the film. Levinson makes every gentile seem just as evil as the English were portrayed in Luc Besson's The Messenger.
The trials and tribulations of Ben and Nate eventually intertwine toward the end of the film, which makes Van's seem really pointless. It also makes you wonder why the mom didn't have her own storyline. Since the film is supposed to be about a Jewish family, it seems weird to exclude the matriarch. Instead, she is reduced to yelling at her kids while bent over at the waist. The ending, while intended to be an emotional heart-tugger, is instead a bit empty.
If you take away the linear script (which Levinson also wrote), the rest of the film is actually quite lovely. The acting is solid all around. The music is phenomenal, using equal parts Frank Sinatra, James Brown and Tom Waits. The cinematography (Christopher Doyle, Happy Together) helps to lend a dark, colorful feel to the film, while long-time Levinson editor Stu Linder expertly chops up Levinson's gorgeous shots in all of the right places.
2:07 – R for adult language, mild violence and some sexual references
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