Heights (2005)
Grade:A
Heights is another entry in the “intersecting lives” subgenre, but not quite. It’s a love note to New York City, but not an aggressive one. It could be classified as a gay film, but it’s not quite just that. It’s an actor’s film, but there are no showy performances. Essentially, it is many things, but what makes it so successful is that is not beholden to any of these genres or tasks.
Take the “intersecting lives” subgenre it belongs to. The film traces a day in the lives of Isabel (Elizabeth Banks) and her fiancee Jonathan (James Marsden). Across town, her mother Diana Lee (Glenn Close), a renowned stage and screen actress, gives a master class at Julliard. Later, she holds auditions for her new play, where she discovers that Alec (Jesse Bradford), who just auditioned, lives downstairs from him. He ends up leaving his jacket afterwards and she hands it off to Isabel to return.
So while the film is perhaps a bit contrived about the intersections of these characters (and there’s one more that I’m not mentioning, for fear of ruining the ending), they intersect in ways that make sense. Diana Lee is an acting great on a par with Meryl Streep in the world of the film, so why wouldn’t an actor audition for her play? He just happens to live above her daughter. The contrivances of the screenplay are subtle and do not ultimately bog down the story.
In the film, it’s one of those days where a lot of Truths are Revealed and yeah, it’s also unlikely that so much would happen in a 24-hour period, but so be it. Sometimes there are days like that, I suppose. Isabel loses her job, gets and then loses another job, gets mugged, meets an intriguing stranger at a party, and – well, again, not to ruin the ending, but that’s not all that happens to Isabel.
The film largely revolves around Isabel, and Elizabeth Banks is pretty phenomenal in the role. The simplest line becomes profound all because of her delivery. Matching her subtlety in a smaller role is Glenn Close, who we all know is a brilliant actress, but who brings a necessary poignancy to her role. Marsden and Bradford are both fine, as is the supporting cast (from Thomas Lennon of Reno: 911! as Jonathan’s co-worker to Isabella Rossellini in a cameo). At times, it may seem as though the screenplay is underwritten, but I’d like to think it’s written with a need for strong acting. This is a film where characters don’t spell out what they’re feeling, but communicate it in subtext, and screenwriter Amy Fox (adapting her own stageplay) depends on this.
As the film culminates at a birthday party for Diana, the threads of the stories start to weave together and meld (thankfully, all of the leads don’t magically end up at the same place or anything like that) and there is what could be called a twist at the end. I’d call it a natural progression, because it isn’t particularly surprising for those of us in the audience. We may be wondering why no one in the film saw it coming, but that’s beside the point. Let’s just say that Jonathan learns a lot about himself, as does Isabel. I’ll leave it there.
I’ve seen Heights about five or six times now and it gets better with each viewing. The writing, in particular, is brilliant in its use of double-meanings. Each line seems to mean one thing when you don’t know the ending, but on a second viewing becomes all the more applicable. The film’s use of its setting – New York City – is understated, but effective. In a way, the film is about the city and the relations it holds. “Six degrees of separation – more like two in New York,” says Diana to Alec. It’s a simple line, but it seems to be the film’s internal justification for what contrivances it has; it also serves as the film’s thesis, so to speak. When a film is as profound and interesting as this one, you’re willing to forgive a few kinks in logic along the way, especially when the film itself justifies those kinks.
Bottom Line:
Greater than the sum of its already fantastic parts, Heights is a fascinating portrait of a handful of people and the impact they have on each other, whether they’re aware of it or not.
© 2004-2009 Ben Waldorf. Posted July 07, 2007. IMDB