Heights ****

The movie opens with Glenn Close teaching an acting class on Shakespeare which immediately made me jealous of all the extras who got to sit there and get acting lessons from Glenn Close! But that's beside the point, her character, Diana, is a one-woman powerhouse of presence and charisma, but it's almost all facade. The story follows the intertwined (sometimes unexpectedly so) lives of five New Yorkers through one 24-hour period. Based on the play by Amy Fox, who also wrote the screenplay, Heights never panders or overplays it's hand, but instead gives us a view into the real lives of these complex characters.

Isabel, played with great depth by Elizabeth Banks, is Diana's daughter and a photographer trying to make a name for herself in her profession while planning her wedding to Jonathan (James Marsden). Jonathan is a corporate lawyer with a past full of secrets that begin unraveling at the very beginning of the film. While some of his deceits come off almost clichéd - man struggles with sexual orientation - the ending is really an unexpected twist. The fourth character we meet is Alec (Jesse Bradford) who seems to be in the film for little more than a few laughs and his puppy dog eyes. He plays an aspiring actor auditioning for Diana's latest play who happens to live in the same building as Isabel and Jonathan. There's also Peter whose sole role in the movie is to interview ex-lovers of a famous photographer, in the process pulling the thread that will begin the unraveling of Jonathan. Also thrown into the mix is a side-plot of Diana's hidden, but very palpable, heartache over her open marriage that is never fully explored.

Overall I really liked this movie for its honesty and emotional depth. With all of the plot layers at work in this film, it's still simply about people trying to find or hide from who they really are. There are so many opposites at work; with Isabel trying valiantly to become what she thinks will make her happy while missing the very things that will. Diana constantly labors to keep up appearances while being truly miserable and afraid to change her situation and even more afraid that her daughter will make the same mistakes. The internal struggles of both female characters and the dynamics of this mother-daughter relationship are truly what make this film so mesmerizing to watch. Some of the technical aspects like the split-screen editing and shooting scenes in order to evoke a "voyeuristic" viewpoint simply didn't work, but the acting stands on it's own.