BARRY LEVINSON GOES HOME TO BALTIMORE IN `LIBERTY HEIGHTS'.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

Lovingly crafted and quaint almost to the point of irrelevance, ``Liberty Heights'' marks filmmaker Barry Levinson's return to his old Baltimore stomping grounds, and the results should please anyone who enjoyed ``Diner'' or ``Avalon.'' The film possesses the same full-bodied characterizations and detailed observations that have defined Levinson's best work, even if their impact here is more appreciated than felt.

At its best, ``Liberty Heights'' means to overturn cliched and bigoted assumptions made about various ethnic groups in the film's eponymous setting. The story takes place in northwest Baltimore's Liberty Heights neighborhood in 1954, a year Levinson signals denotes as a cultural crossroads. Schools are being desegregated, and the automobile is more readily available, giving young people greater mobility to move between the city's invisible neighborhood lines.

That's significant, for as the voice-over narrator states early on, he thought the ``whole world was Jewish'' when he was a child. This is the voice of Ben (Ben Foster, a regular on NBC's new drama ``Freaks and Geeks''), the youngest of the two sons of benign mobster Nate Kurtzman (Joe Mantegna). Nate runs a failing burlesque house, which is really just a front for his failing numbers racket. He's looking for new ways to make a buck.

This is one of the film's three intertwining story lines. The other two deal with Nate's sons, Ben and the first-born Van (Adrien Brody). Ben has fallen for a classmate, Sylvia (Groundlings alum Rebekah Johnson), the first African-American student in his class. Sylvia introduces Ben to the hidden sounds of rock 'n' roll via James Brown, Ray Charles and Big Joe Turner. But the two must keep their burgeoning friendship a secret, because neither family would approve.

Meanwhile, Van, a true romantic, falls hard for the beautiful blond-haired, blue-eyed princess Dubbie (model Carolyn Murphy) after crashing a WASP party. Van's entry into this upper-class enclave isn't without incident: One of his friends instigates a fight after a perceived slur, and later they all witness an automobile accident involving a tortured James Dean character named Trey (Justin Chambers). Much of this borders on melodrama, and the whole film has a kind of ``Wonder Years'' self-involvement that those outside the boomer generation will find somewhat tedious. After all, do we really need another nostalgic recitation of why all things significant began in the 1950s?

That said, Levinson has filled ``Liberty Heights'' with enough sweet humor and heartfelt emotion to make it enjoyable. The winning ensemble of actors has a lot to do with the film's success. Brody, so good in Spike Lee's ``Summer of Sam,'' has magnetism to spare, and newcomer Foster is memorable as the clever younger brother. Murphy and Chambers, who both got their start modeling, show much promise as well.

If Levinson's observations concerning American mores have a familiarity that borders on redundancy, they do come with enough nuance and sincerity to make them palatable. ``Liberty Heights'' doesn't feel like uncharted territory, but it's a nice enough place to spend a couple of hours.

The facts

The film: ``Liberty Heights'' (R; crude language and sex-related material).

The stars: Adrien Brody, Ben Foster, Joe Mantegna, Rebekah Johnson, Justin Chambers, Carolyn Murphy.

Behind the scenes: Written and directed by Barry Levinson. Released by Warner Bros.

Running time: Two hours.

Playing: AMC Century 14 in Century City.

Our rating: Three stars.

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Photo

Photo: Ben Foster, left, and Adrien Brody play the sons of a failing mobster in Barry Levinson's ``Liberty Heights.''