Movie Review: Liberty Heights (1999)

Liberty Heights was written and directed by Barry Levinson and is the semi-autobiographical story of his upbringing in a devout Jewish family during the 1950s. The film stars Adrien Brody, Ben Foster, Orlando Jones, Bebe Neuwirth, Joe Mantegna, and Rebekah Johnson in the leads. Right off the bat, 'Liberty Heights' showcases excellent screenwriting from director Levinson. He is an extraordinarily talented writer and his script is highly underrated, as are his abilities in general as a filmmaker. This witty dialogue is what makes this movie so fresh and relentlessly entertaining. As are the performances, which across the globe, are astounding. Adrien Brody as Van is so good here and captures the essence of this Jewish family in a time when they didn't mingle with other social groups. Also great is Joe Mantegna, who for the majority of this film, leads a separate narrative from his two sons, this being the slower one. The movie revolves around Ben (Foster) who falls in love with Sylvia (Johnson), an African American girl. These two families not only dislike each other, but the film is set up against the backdrop of a Jewish-African American conflict. There is a wider social issue at stake here and Levinson's film (just over two hours) takes the clearest microscopic view and brings it into everyday life. This is a great-looking movie which primarily relies on dialogue to thrust the plot forward. The soundtrack and the adaption of the period is also very remarkable. What plagues Liberty Heights is the heavy-reliance on dialogue and witty humor, which makes the film more entertaining rather than engaging. I was never engrossed by the pulse of this film, intrigued a lot yes, but I would never nominate this movie for an Oscar because it doesn't have that depth. The other problem this movie has is Joe Mantegna's story line. I thought his story (while eventually meaningful) was slow and didn't interest me anywhere near as much as Van and Ben's romances. There is poignancy in Liberty Heights, but it doesn't dig deep enough to get to the greater ideas. I was never bored though, for this is a highly well made and very methodically constructed period piece. Overall, Liberty Heights is light-hearted and entertaining, but it does have slower elements and aspects of the plot that aren't as engaging or thought provoking. This movie still manages to hold a light to Levinson's underrated filmography. Three stars= A-