Heights (2005)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Chris Terrio

Writers:

Amy Fox (screenplay)
Amy Fox (play)

Release Date:

8 December 2005 (Israel)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Spanning twenty-four hours, Heights follows five New Yorkers challenged to choose their destiny before the sun comes up the next day.

Plot Keywords:

Photographer | New Yorker | Actress | Homosexual Love | Closeted Homosexual

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Chandler Williams	...	Juilliard Macbeth
Bess Wohl	...	Juilliard Lady Macbeth
Glenn Close	...	Diana
Elizabeth Banks	...	Isabel
James Marsden	...	Jonathan
Jesse Bradford	...	Alec
Daniel Neiden	...	Wedding Rabbi
Thomas Lennon	...	Marshall
Matthew Davis	...	Mark (as Matt Davis)
John Light	...	Peter
Isabella Rossellini	...	Liz
Susan Malick	...	Rachel
Rachel Siegel	...	Autograph Seeker
Katie Kreisler	...	Helen
Philip Tabor	...	Paul

MPAA:

Rated R for language, brief sexuality and nudity.

Runtime:

USA:93 min | USA:98 min (DVD version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish | Hebrew

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Brazil:18 | UK:15 | Canada:14A (Ontario) | USA:R | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Bryant Park, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Merchant Ivory Productions

Trivia:

Mia Farrow was the original choice for Liz, but had to bow out, due to stage commitments.

Goofs:

Plot holes: At the audition of Alec with Liz, it is established that Alec lives on the fifth floor while Isabel lives on the third floor. But at the beginning of the movie, Isabel comes downstairs from her apartment and passes another apartment door near the stairs. Approximately five seconds after she passes, Alec comes out of THAT apartment with his dog. Since when is the fifth floor at a lower level than the third floor?

Quotes:

[looking at Peter's copy of Benjamin's catalog]
Diana Lee: Well, he still has impeccable taste.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in 16 Blocks (2006)

Soundtrack:

Gamar El Hawa

Passion and Urban Ennui in NY

This film begins with the Glenn Close character, a famous actress who could be Close herself, giving a master class in Shakespeare to a bunch of Juilliard acting students, in which she laments the lack of passion she sees in their performances and, more broadly, in the world she inhabits. Which is a fitting, and ironic, prologue for a movie that looks at the ennui of urban lives and the emotional earthquakes that disrupt them. This is a contemporary New York character-driven drama, but it reminds me of a 1970s movie -- in a good way. There are slightly retro split screens, long-lens conversations like mid-period Woody Allen movies, and a sense of lightness in the directing style that never becomes slickness. It's also refreshing to see an independent film that doesn't completely deteriorate in the third act -- it's almost become taboo to tell a story that is satisfying in the world of independent film, because it's seen as a concession to Hollywood. But this manages to do it in a convincing way without selling out to the forces of cheesiness or convention.