by MATTHEW HAYS

Like Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, filmmaker Robert Altman's style is often emulated, but rarely with much success. With Chris Terrio's directorial debut, Heights, the young filmmaker has captured the very essence of Altman's sprawling, intertwining ensemble movies.

The film has a number of characters navigate their way through life in Manhattan. Glenn Close is in especially good form as a famous theatrical director and acting coach as she prepares for her latest role as Lady Macbeth. Her daughter, played by Elizabeth Banks, is preparing for her wedding to James Marsden. There are all sorts of equally interesting characters who pop in and out of the action over a course of 24 hours. Rufus Wainwright plays a bitchy fag (now there's a stretch), George Segal has a blast playing a rabbi, Isabella Rossellini plays a Vanity Fair editor and Eric Bogosian is a theatre director.

Watching this cast is almost as much fun as the script, which takes a series of unexpected turns. (Don't let anyone ruin it for you).

What sets Terrio's stab at being Altmanesque apart from so many other directors' attempts is his confidence in the script (by Amy Fox). He does not attempt to jazz things up with cloying camerawork and jarring technique in an effort to be stylish. Instead, he tells Fox's clever, interweaving narratives in a straightforward fashion - it's a respect for the carefully penned script that is sensible and rewarding. Even though we're dealing with theatre people, Terrio never lets the actors push their characters over the top. These seem like very real people you could know.

Like much of Altman's best work - in particular Nashville and Short Cuts - there is a sense of melancholia that runs throughout Heights. Terrio makes the city another character in the movie, with longing shots of the skyline, evoking memories of the Twin Towers that no longer stand in the financial district.

It's one of many nice touches in Heights, an elegant debut from a promising filmmaker who will clearly be bringing us more in future.

Heights opens Friday, Sept. 9

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