Plot:

'Heights' follows five characters over 24 hours on a fall day in New York City. Isabel, a photographer, is having second thoughts about her upcoming marriage to Jonathan, a lawyer. On the same day, Isabel's mother Diana learns that her husband has a new lover and begins to re-think her life choices and her open marriage. Diana and Isabel's paths cross with Alec, a young actor, and with Peter, a journalist. As the interrelated stories proceed, the connections between the lives of the five characters begin to reveal themselves and their stories unravel. Isabel, Jonathan, Diana, Alec, and Peter must choose what kind of lives they will lead before the sun comes up on the next day.

Genre: Drama

Running Time: 1 hr. 33 min.

Release Date: June 17th, 2005 (NY/LA).

MPAA Rating: R for language, brief sexuality and nudity.

Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics

Starring: Glenn Close, Elizabeth Banks, James Marsden, Jesse Bradford, Matthew Davis, George Segal

Directed by: Chris Terrio

Produced by: Ismail Merchant, Richard Hawley









I really want to see this movie. If it ends up coming to my theater I definitely intend to go. It sounds interesting. It's highly unlikely it will play near me though.



James Marsden was on the cover of The Advocate recently and he has an interview in it. Here it is:



Exploring Marsden

Rising star James Marsden talks about skating with drag queens, his X-Men 3 hopes, and giving his all as a sexually conflicted groom-to-be in Heights

By Dennis Hensley

From The Advocate, May 24, 2005


James Marsden is holding on to a few secrets about his new film Heights: “I don’t want to ruin the plot for people.” But he’s up-front about the gay thing. “Sometimes I’ll read something where a straight actor [playing gay] will get defensive and go, ‘No, no, no, it’s acting. I’m straight and I want everyone to know I’m straight,’ ” explains the Oklahoma-born actor, who’s best known for portraying the visor-wearing Cyclops in the smash X-Men films. “It’s like, ‘Come on, guys. Stop being pussies. Now you sound like you’re not so secure with your sexuality. Now you sound like you’re hiding something.’ ”

Heights is all about one of those guys who’s hiding something. In this ensemble drama produced by Merchant Ivory and directed by first-timer Chris Terrio, Marsden plays Jonathan, a dashing and successful Manhattan attorney who’s about to marry his live-in girlfriend, Isabel (Seabiscuit’s Elizabeth Banks). What Isabel doesn’t know is that Jonathan has a past love affair with one man and is hot and heavy with another even as they plan for their wedding.

Costarring Glenn Close and Jesse Bradford, it’s a smart, fresh look at an age-old dilemma—the perfect date flick for gay men and their ex-girlfriends. Assuming they’re still speaking. [Note: Plot spoilers follow. —Ed.]


For some gay men in Jonathan’s situation, getting out of that last serious relationship with a woman is a lifesaving escape. It’s like an enormous weight has been lifted.

For some people, it is like that. But for others, maybe it’s not so black-and-white. That’s what I chose to believe about Jonathan. I believe that he absolutely loves Isabel and that they probably have good sex, but there’s an innate part of him that’s attracted to men. That, to me, was more layered and interesting than Jonathan just dealing with having to tell her he’s gay and then “Ah!” he’s set free. It’s more complex than that. There are so many variables, I believe, that affect one’s sexuality. Was it Gore Vidal who said ‘For everyone, there’s a [different] degree of sexuality’? I respond to that. I think that that’s true. For me, anyway.


Do you think if Isabel had forgiven Jonathan, he’d have stayed with her?

Possibly. At one point he says, “It’s you I want. Let’s forget about this and move on.” I believe this is Jonathan not being strong enough to deal with it.


But instead Isabel has a great line—

“I don’t care about what you want anymore.” She’s been dealing with what everyone else wants instead of listening to what she wants, and she finally stands up for herself.


I appreciated how, without being sappy, Heights gave Isabel’s heartbreak its due.

I agree. It felt real, like a real relationship. I can imagine how a woman in that situation would feel destroyed and very insecure about their own sexuality because “he chose a man over me.”


Out singer Rufus Wainwright appears in Heights as another of your photographer ex’s conquests. Did you get to interact with him?

No, and it really made me sad, because while we were shooting this movie, his music was all I listened to. [Director] Chris [Terrio] promises me for the premiere we’ll get together and maybe do a duet or something.


Will you play Cyclops in X-Men 3?

It’s very complicated. I want nothing more than to be a part of X-Men 3, especially since they’re probably going into the Dark Phoenix saga, which would include my character a lot, but the schedule might conflict. I hope it all works out. I told them I’d do it for free.



Hensley wrote Screening Party (Alyson Books) and cowrote the film Testosterone.



Marsden seems like such a nice, cool guy. Very likable.