Review of Heights

Heights (2005)
7/10
A Film Grounded in Solid Writing of a Good Play
24 August 2006
I understand a lot of the criticisms I've read so far of this film. I can see how the characters might bug some people with their self-absorption. But for me, the movie had a central pillar of integrity because it was originally a play, and I thought the writing gave it intelligent coherence. For me, there always was a point.

What most struck me about the film from the get-go with Diana Lee's scene (Glenn Close) teaching the master acting class was the notion that we've all become cel phone-talking, latte-drinking, status conscious zombies afraid to bust out and take a damn risk. I thought the director sort of layered this idea on top of the film in a way that I imagined Crash tried, unsuccessfully, to do. The result was, as some have noted, not a plot driven movie but a character-based one, one in which we are not surprised by much, but, again as someone else pointed out, the point is the characters' reactions to each other. I really gravitated to this idea that we have sold our souls to ambition, our future, and feeling secure in it. This idea has particular resonance for me. In their own ways, living like this dehumanized the characters. This was particularly obvious for the fiancé, Jonathan.

Elizabeth Banks looks remarkably like another actress these days, not Parker Posey, but someone else -- Julia Stiles or Kirsten Dunst. I thought the entire cast was pretty decent and interesting. Isabella Rosellini's scene was excellent – she captured that subtly bullying personality perfectly.

Unlike a lot of others, I actually thought Glenn Close was a little flat in her scenes away from the theater. Maybe she was supposed to be.

Roger Ebert's review had some weird grammatical or spelling and sense mistakes.

Rightly or wrongly the notion that corporations have won and have won us really grabbed me while watching Heights.

This was one of those quiet movies. I don't mean quiet film as in understated, but literally a quiet movie/sound script. It's one of those dvds you can fall asleep to. It's so soothing, no loud noises, slow, nice, tinkling soundtrack, everyone's voices are soft. It wasn't boring. I watched it once, then started it over and fell asleep to it the second time.
2 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed