FILM-FORWARD.COMReviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
HEIGHTS
Glenn Close plays Diana, a Juilliard dramatic arts teacher who
also is a star rehearsing Lady Macbeth on Broadway. A
celebrity determined to stay at the top of her game, she is
saddled with an unfaithful husband. Her daughter Isabel, warmly played by Elizabeth Banks,
confronts pre-wedding
hesitations, a former lover, a prospective suitor, and a golden chance to
boost her photography career, while her fiancé Jonathan (James Marsden) holds a secret
sexual past, and Alec (Jessie
Bradford), an
up-and-coming actor, is torn between selling
himself on the casting couch or pursuing the bumpier road of an actor’s life. Other characters
facing dilemmas of personal and
artistic integrity are intertwined to produce what Diana refers to as
New York City's "two degrees of separation." Reflecting the labyrinthine
of the urban and social landscape they inhabit, all are
trying to find their way up and around the manipulative and ruthless maze of
life in a city both fulfilling and unforgiving. Cameos
by Isabella Rossellini, Eric Bogosian, and George Segal add entertaining
support to the mix.
To its slight misfortune, the overall structure of the film comes off as
derivative, following a similar format to Magnolia, which examines a
day in the life of Los Angeles residents. In contrast, Magnolia achieves a better balance of
its disparate story lines. Whether the culprit is a less developed or uneven
plot structure or performances that vary in intensity, Heights gets caught
between heightening its focus on particular characters and being an
ensemble-based story giving all main characters equal weight. Regardless,
there remains a compelling uncertainty of the fate of the principal characters. And once again,
Close conveys her prowess
portraying resilient tiger ladies, exposing Diana's lust,
loneliness, and insecurity with an adroit on-and-off game face during her constant attempts at
seducing, conquering, and controlling her
and others' affairs. Max Rennix, actor & writer based in New York
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