November 17, 1999
Web posted at: 3:32 p.m. EST (2032 GMT)

By Reviewer Paul Clinton

(CNN) -- Time and again, writer-director Barry Levinson has returned to his beloved hometown, Baltimore, Maryland, for inspiration. He first used the city as a setting in 1982 with "Diner," then "Tin Men" in 1987, and "Avalon" in 1990. Now, he looks to his boyhood and the 1950s with his latest film, "Liberty Heights."

With this fourth journey to Baltimore in two decades, Levinson again seeks inspiration from his past in an effort to study the human condition. As in former forays to Maryland, "Liberty Heights," is a carefully crafted story. Levinson uses the personal prism of his connections to the setting to refract memories of his large, close-knit Jewish family. As before, his viewpoints have universal appeal.

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The year is 1954. Rock 'n' roll is taking its first steps toward becoming the music that will characterize a generation. School desegregation is being implemented. Against this backdrop of social upheaval, we meet Ben Kurtzman, played by Ben Foster in his feature-film debut. Young Kurtzman was brought up thinking the whole world is Jewish. Now that he's venturing into wider society, he's beginning to understand what it means to be a Jew, a member of a minority in an ever-changing world.

To complicate matters, Ben is attracted to a new student, Sylvia, played by Rebekah Johnson, in what's also her first feature film. Sylvia is one of the first black students at Ben's high school. Their budding relationship helps us explore the religious, social and racial differences of this provocative and uneasy time in our history.

The story of Ben and Sylvia is one of three that inform this movie's turbulent journey. Ben's parents Nate and Ada (Joe Mantegna, Bebe Neuwirth) and Sylvia's father (James Pickens Jr.) provide another generational viewpoint. None of these parents approves of the friendship. And Sylvia's father, a medical doctor, is better off financially than the Kurtzmans. Prejudice and fear come from both sides.

But the Kurtzmans have other problems. Nate's business is slowly dying, and he's turned to running a neighborhood numbers racket to make ends meet. When small-time black drug dealer Little Melvin (Orlando Jones) breaks the bank, Nate resorts to desperate measures that lead to a dramatic climax.

Ben's older brother Van (Adrien Brody, seen in Spike Lee's "Summer of Sam") falls in love with a blond gentile goddess named Dubbie, played by Carolyn Murphy. (Levinson loves to introduce these new talents to filmgoers.) A former model, Dubbie has been featured on the covers of Vogue, W, and Allure. Van's relationship with her and her high-society world brings more cross-cultural notes into play.

In an article he wrote for The New York Times, Levinson says he was driven to write this screenplay after reading a review of his 1998 flop, "Sphere." Dustin Hoffman plays a Jewish psychologist in that film -- "not officially Jewish," said the review, but "nudgy" and "mensch-like." That's a conclusion Levinson says the reviewer came to only because the character wanted to call home at the beginning of the film.

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Levinson apparently was troubled to read that a character in a science-fiction film would be singled out as Jewish. This led to memories of Jews not being allowed to live in certain parts of Baltimore when Levinson was a kid there, not to mention being barred from many country clubs. This musing prompted the filmmaker to return to Baltimore and re-examine his roots with humor and passion.

Levinson won an Academy Award for directing "Rain Man" (1988) and has had numerous other successes. But it's his films based on trips to Baltimore that are the most heartfelt and moving of his work.

"Liberty Heights" opens nationwide on Wednesday and is rated R, with a running time of 120 minutes.

"Liberty Heights" is distributed by CNN Interactive sister company Warner Bros., a Time Warner property.