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Heights
Sony Pictures Classics


4.4

based on 25 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 34 votes
Read user comments
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MPAA RATING: R for language, brief sexuality and nudity

Starring Glenn Close, Elizabeth Banks, James Marsden, Jesse Bradford, Isabella Rossellini, Matthew Davis, Susan Malick, Eric Bogosian, and George Segal

Heights follows five characters over twenty-four hours on a fall day in New York City. As the interrelated stories proceed, the connections between the lives of the five characters begin to reveal themselves and their stories unravel. (Sony Pictures Classics)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Amy Fox Chris Terrio (additional written material by)
DIRECTED BY:	Chris Terrio
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: November 1, 2005 Theatrical: June 17, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	93 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

There's much subtle beauty in the last movie completed by Merchant Ivory Productions before Merchant's untimely death.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Fox uses her earth-tone-clad, Ivy-League-schooled characters the way Jane Austen used hers: taking their privileged, rigid social structures and building a stage to explore deeper human problems.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

The acting is uniformly superb.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Heights is stage-bound throughout, and the secrets it would like to keep are very predictable. But its heart is in the right place, and the performances are first-rate.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Heights breathes, is briefly and immediately present, and is over. In this summer of noisy steroid cinema, such small favors are welcome.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The film is one of those interlocking dramas where all of the characters are involved in each other's lives, if only they knew it. We know, and one of our pleasures is waiting for the pennies to drop.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Perversely fascinating.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

Beautifully shot on location in New York and consistently well-acted, but it sticks a little too closely to the surface to be very compelling.

Film Threat Jeremy Mathews

Director Chris Terrio confidently delivers a solid first feature, but sometimes doesn’t always engage in the characters’ inner demons, which could have made an even better film given the cast and material.

Chicago Tribune Allison Benedikt

These are not people me and you and everyone we know know--these are "short version" people, characters who comfort each other by quoting Shakespeare.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jason Anderson

Lacks the energy and vibrancy of the best films to come out of the city in the past few years.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

This is brisk and fun to watch, thanks to the actors...But once you catch the main drift of the plot, it becomes awfully ho-hum.

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

The result is a kind of quirky, high-toned soap opera.

Variety Lisa Nesselson

An entertaining ensembler marbled with wit and heartache.

Village Voice Laura Sinagra

In this study of keeping up appearances while everything falls apart, the stakes never seem as high as the title suggests.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Director Chris Terrio adapts Amy Fox's play with flashes of wit, moments of insight, and some fine performances. But Heights' characters move along such preordained paths and perform such familiar movie actions that they might as well sport antennae.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Like the film, the characters mean well and look good. But they're so deeply immersed in their own heads that they can't see the world for their needs.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Terrio keeps the multiple stories flowing smoothly, and the setting goes a long way to justify the web of fortuitous interconnections -- New York is the ultimate two-degrees-of-separation town.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

As enjoyable as Close is, Heights as a whole is a mannered simulation that only occasionally and accidentally feels like real New York life.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Gianni Truzzi

Themes at the heart of Heights of despair among the beautiful people are a bore.

Philadelphia Inquirer David Hiltbrand

Heights manages to make the lives of all these beautiful people seem quite tedious. Despite their accomplishments, the only thing they seem suited for is hailing cabs.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

Terrio's technically proficient film is mature, modern, and minus the all-important passion and risk.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Working in Terribly Serious mode, rookie director Chris Terrio proves as pompous as filmmakers three times his age.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Heights is nothing more than a second-rate version of several much better movies, all of which are available on DVD and video.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

If there's anything good to be said about Heights, it's Glenn Close's strutty, booming performance.

The average user rating for this movie is 4.4 (out of 10) based on 34 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Tom M. gave it a6:
Interesting storyline, excellent cast, and good performances. Poor sound or an inferior print resulted in my not giving this film a higher rating. I missed too many crucial lines. Even when a film is operating within the confines of a low budget, there is no excuse for second rate sound or substandard equipment.

Joe W. gave it an8:
I don't know how people can do cartwheels for a terrible movie like "You, me and Everyone we Know", and pan this one. It has really good dialougue and acting. Elizabeth Banks is going to be huge--she's great in everything, comedy and drama. This is a solid, entertaining movie worth seeing.

Kay W. gave it a4:
A movie that means well with very good actors but limited dialogue and predictable TV sitcom-type behavior. Glenn Close does her best, and that's worth a watch.

George F. gave it a0:
This is a terrible movie that got some good reviews because it has a gay love scene.

Rajiv gave it a1:
My God this was awful. The advance Scout team obviously took No Doze before entering the theater. Earth to Greg don't quit your day job as your review is awful. Shakespear it is not.

Mark B. gave it a6:
Famed producer Ismael Merchant's last screen effort doesn't take place in India or interpret Henry James, but some viewers may very well end up wishing it had. A diffuse, meandering look at one day in the lives of several New York theatrical or otherwise "artsy-fartsy" types at crucial points in their personal relationships (at least one is facing an all-time worst day ever!) this simply doesn't have the tightness, discipline or command of pacing necessary to build any tension or much interest in most of the individuals involved; unlike Miranda July's multicharacter gem Me and You and Everyone We Know, in which absolutely everything works and all the pieces fit together beautifully, first time director Chris Terrio doesn't seem to have left anything off the cutting room floor; as a result, the few bits and sequences that really work (such as an uproariously funny meeting between an engaged couple of different faiths and a rabbi played by George Segal, who responds by administering a Ladies Home Journal-type psychological test) are set adrift in a sea of interminable sequences involving characters getting into cars, climbing out of cars, crossing the street, and doing nothing. It's worth a DVD rental (although it surely won't have any deleted scenes, for reasons mentioned above) because Glenn Close, who does more acting with her eyes here than most actors do with every muscle in their bodies, is so much fun to watch as an outrageously manipulative diva actress trying to break up her daughter's impending marriage by any means necessary. Close's interpretation of her character Diana's behavior restored fond if creepy memories of her most famous movie role--and made me extremely relieved that Terrio and Amy Fox's script didn't call for her to come in contact with any rabbits!

Sidiot gave it a0:
Tony stop sniffing the glue will you please? Boring as hell unless you like to watch moss grow on a rock or paint drying? Avoid. If I want to Shakespear I will watch Shakespear not this twill.

Heights Sony Pictures Classics

Heights
Sony Pictures Classics