LIBERTY HEIGHTS

LIBERTY HEIGHTS

Directed by Barry Levinson. Starring Adrien Brody, Joe Mantegna, Bebe Neuwurth, Ben Foster

It is difficult to imagine that anyone on the planet was salivating at the prospect of Liberty Heights - it is, after all, the director's fourth celluloid meditation on Jewish life in post-war Baltimore, and therefore hardly the kind of blockbuster project that sends the movie world into convulsions of excitement.

It recounts a Jewish family's experiences of desegregation and assimilation in the 1950s. Sixteen-year-old Ben Kurtzman (Foster) is fixated on a new black classmate, whose lips he watches daily as she prays. For this, he risks the wrath of his matriarchical despots (Mother and Granny). Elder brother Van, meanwhile, is desperately in pursuit of a jaded, pathologically spoilt, WASP princess.

Elsewhere, the boys' Cadillac-worshipping daddy Nate (Mantegna) heads up an old-school, small-time Jewish mafia outfit, running numbers and a burlesque house in order to put food on the table. However, when a thuggish black drug-dealer hits the jackpot and effectively bankrupts Nate's racket, he finds he is somewhat fucked.

Faults first: the tone of Liberty Heights is decidedly on the nostalgic side, and its tokenistic bleeding-heart-liberal even-handedness (for every scummy black dealer, there's a saintly black doctor) can be somewhat irritating.

But there's far more going on in the movie to admire. For one, Levinson's trademark wisecracking dialogue sounds particularly smart emanating from the mouths of adolescents.

Even more importantly, the film is a genuinely blissful sight to behold, having been visually boosted beyond expectation by the magnificent cinematography of Hong Kong wunderkind Chris Doyle.

Liberty Heights also boasts its share of fine performances, particularly from the latterly off-form Joe Mantegna in what is easily his classiest turn since House Of Games. There is also one timeless moment, when young Ben attempts to go trick-or-treating disguised as Der Fuhrer himself, to the massive consternation of his elder relatives.

Though miles too subtle and gentle to have queues thronging outside the multiplex, for all its flaws, Liberty Heights is a highly endearing and worthwhile cinematic experience.