Review of Liberty Heights (1999) by Veronica . — 19 Nov 2009

I'm Jewish, not exceptionally so, but enough that this movie has resonance for me. It's a Jewish movie, with Jewish protagonists growing up in the Jewish section of Baltimore. That being said, I'm sure that it has resonance for non-Jews as well; I watched it with a Muslim who enjoyed the movie.

Specifically, it deals with brothers Ben (Foster) and Van (Brody), as they grow up in 1950s Baltimore. Ben is a senior in high school (at a time when there was much speculation about things such as sex and drugs, and much less participation) while Van attends the University of Baltimore (and appears to live at home). Both brothers encounter forbidden objects of romance: Ben favors a Negro girl at his school named Sylvia (Rebekah Johnson) while Van becomes obsessed by Dubbie (Carolyn Murphy), a rich WASP who shouldn't be associating with Jews. Some of the most interesting scenes in the movie are about the different ways the brothers express their love, and how these storylines spin out.

However, the funniest and most purely entertaining sequences occur around the events following the boys' father (Joe Mantegna), a burlesque theater owner who runs a numbers business on the sly. Mantegna's performance is commanding as a Jewish "gangster" who is simply running a business; but business isn't good. Luckily, family matters to him more than profits.

The Jewish family rings true in their reactions and mannerisms, from the overbearing mother to the modern-world-uncomprehending grandmother to the sardonic Van.

Overall, there is a genuine feeling of nostalgia in the picture. The director is from Baltimore, and the implication is that the movie is semi-autobiographical; it feels like it.

Performances: Ben Foster and Adrian Brody put in some very good performances, as well as the covey of actors who portrayed their best friends, enemies, and other assorted youths. Orlando Jones and Anthony Anderson, on the other hand, seemed a bit hackneyed and overdone...more like caricatures of black thugs in the 1950s than fully realized characters. In fact, the whole sequence between Jones and Foster (I won't spoil it) seemed a bit too fantastical for a movie otherwise grounded in the realities, both fun and brutal of life in Jewish Baltimore. Mantegna's performance is undoubtedly the best of the bunch, especially in the final, bittersweet sequence of the film.

A very good movie, that just misses greatness for the subplot between Jones and Foster.