LIBERTY HEIGHTS A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1999 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): ***
Ben Kurtzman (Ben Foster) and Sylvia (Rebekah Johnson), two innocent 1950s teenagers, listen to records in her room. As they sit properly on her shag-carpeted floor, they enjoy some "Negro music," something Ben has heard little of. Ben, you see, is Jewish and Sylvia is black, which disturbs both sets of parents when they find out that their kids like each other.
But LIBERTY HEIGHTS isn't some heavy romantic tragedy a la "Romeo and Juliet." Instead, it's another light-hearted comedy from writer and director Barry Levinson. Sure, it's about discrimination in everything from swimming pools ("No Jews, Dogs Or Coloreds Allowed") to the numbers racket, but any movie in which a Jew dresses up as Adolf Hitler for Halloween doesn't expect to be taken too seriously.
After his disastrous SPHERE, Levinson returns to his Jewish roots in mid-1950s Baltimore, which was also the setting for his best picture (DINER). Handsomely filmed and decorated with the best set of Caddies this side of a museum, LIBERTY HEIGHTS still isn't in the same league as DINER. The characters are likable, but their development keeps coming up short. When Levinson finally introduces some creative tension in the story's last act, it feels contrived and awkward. Nevertheless, the movie on the whole proves more attractive than the sum of its parts.
Levinson divides the world along sharp racial lines in his story with the Jews referring to the Gentiles as "the other kind." A typically funny scene has Ben over to a blindingly "white" kitchen for lunch. One of his friend's very white mother, dressed in white, serves him a sandwich composed of white luncheon meat, white mayo and white bread. Overcome with all of this whiteness, he can't eat.
Ben's father (Joe Mantegna) has his own set of problems. His strip joint, called a burlesque house back then, isn't making enough money to camouflage his real business, a lucrative numbers racket. He's also worried that his newest stripper might actually take all her clothes off and get him arrested.
Most of the film's jokes don't amount to much with ones about the size of male private parts being prominent. Sporadically the dialog does hit pay dirt with wise and witty observations about sex ("Dream gals were invented by God to tease the apparatus.") and racism ("It's okay to have a Jewish guy hanging over the bed, just not coming in the front door.").
"Life is made of a few big moments and a lot of little ones," Ben explains in voice-over. Levinson's movies like DINER, TIN MEN and AVALON celebrate the little ones. And LIBERTY HEIGHTS is an attractive, albeit modest, addition to the Levinson collection.
LIBERTY HEIGHTS runs 2:07. It is rated R for some sexual situations, profanity and drinking. An innocent picture that is on the mild side of most PG-13 movies, it would be fine for kids around 12 and up.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
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