People I Know (2002) Reviews

• Very Good Movie

  FrenchyAlex2004-05-29

  Don't pay that much attention about all the bad comments you will hear: this is a very interesting movie. To sum up, Al Pacino is an agent for all kind of people: stars, politicians... Therefore, he knows a lot of people and way too much about them. Now, the problem is that to many spectators the movie seemed empty. True there is no action, and true there is no big storyline. But it doesn't matter! This movie is about describing the "high spheres" of New York society. It is a good lesson on how corrupted the system is, how hypocrite people can be, and how you can't rely on anybody, even so-called friends. Everyone will turn his back on you when it comes to his own interest. Al Pacino acts great in this movie. It's a very hard part since there is no real guideline, but he does the job wonderfully. You will see an OLD Al Pacino, a TIRED Al Pacino, that might disappoints you if you remember him as the lively and shouting "mister Devil's Advocate", but it's an interesting side of him that you might discover.

• landmark latter-day Pacino performance.

  t-mieczkowski2004-11-30

  Pacino is extraordinary. The much-lamented accent is sorta a bisexual/Georgian/"Noo Yawk" ... it represents a complex mixture of dialect for a complex character perfectly portrayed by Pacino - balls and all. His work seems to become increasingly esoteric over the years, and outside of his character, the storyline is uneven and downright wretched in some parts. But Pacino redeems even the drek and delivers a landmark performance that one wouldn't expect as he nears closer to being able to collect Social Security. Gutsy, bold, and brilliant. The script and direction needed quite a bit of work- but Pacino's performance is compelling enough to wonder exactly what he will do next. A must-see for Pacino fans.

• FAMILIAR NEW YORK STORY

  cynharm2003-01-22

  Inspired by the SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS and THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES, this labour of love is the sort of film made for New Yorkers by New Yorkers. While not being particularly fresh in it's ideas and story, PEOPLE I KNOW more than makes up for it's short comings due in large part to another strong turn by Al Pacino. Pacino is surprisingly gentle and small as a has-been impresario who is desperate for one last benefit to do some good in the city. Why exactly this benefit means so much to him is never really explained but Pacino, with that wonderful expressive face of his, is content to carry the drama with subtly and grace, using those great bags under his eyes to convey a sense of pleading exhaustion throughout the film. In many scenes, his character seems so fatigued that we expect Pacino to expire on the spot, so heavy is the burden of his life lived as a heel. The script, by New York playwright Jon Robin Baitz, knows it's world well, as demonstrated by the excellent lead characters and the numerous small, but equally well conceived characters that pepper the screenplay. Plot-wise the Baitz's script is less than successful. The screenplay suffers from two well-meaning maguffins - Pacino's big benefit and the `toy' Tea Leoni finds - which don't really pay dividends and lead the film to a somewhat flat finale. The direction by SEX IN THE CITY helmer Daniel Algrant is unobtrusive and safe, with no real effort made to assemble this film in anything higher than TV movie quality. Algrant is content to keep attention on his cast, which - when dealing with Al Pacino - is never a bad idea.

• Surprise winner!

  shepardjessica2004-08-18

  I'd never heard of this 2002 film until Ebert and Roper reviewed a few weeks ago and I was pleasantly suprised since I don't think Al Pacino has been doing his best work lately. In this film, he's right on target and the film is pretty fascinating. He looks haggard, overworked, and struggling with all kinds of things. Even Ryan O'Neal is believable for a change (of course, the character he plays fits him to a tee). I don't know if this one went straight to video or what, but search it out (especially Pacino fans). A definite 7 out of 10. Tea Leoni is sharp as a tack playing a flake. The entire supporting cast blends in nicely and this resembles a David Mamet script.

• One of Al Pacino's best roles, better then Michael Corleone in both "Godfather" movies.

  sol12182004-07-29

  ****SPOILERS**** Brutally honest and shocking movie about those in power and how they use that power to control the lives of millions of people from top elected politicians and Wall Street executives to the rank and file working man and women and how far they would go to keep and hold on to their power. Eli Wurman, Al Pacino, is a top publicity agent in New York City. Having graduated from Harvard Law School #4 in his class he found out that doing publicity for his favorite cause, improving race relations, was more effective then being a top flight civil lawyer or advocate. One night Eli bails out one of his client's actor Cary Launer, Ryan O'Neal,lover who came to see him from California TV star Jill Hopper, Tea Leoni. Instead of driving back to Jill's hotel room she tells the limo driver to take her and Eli to Wall Street. Going into this secret club thats a cross between a high-class bordello and opium den Eli sees who he's not supposed to see, the makers and shakers in the world of power in both politics and big business, and doing what there not supposed to be doing :drugs sex and making under the table deals that affects countless lives. Jill's thrown out of the club for going there with an uninvited guest, Eli, but she also secretly took photos of the club and the people there with a hidden camera. The next morning Jill is found dead in her hotel room from an apparent drug overdose. Eli who was there with her out cold in her bathtub, and who her killer didn't see, saw what happened. Eli is really not a danger to those in power since he's obsessed with his benefit show that he has planned the next day for the improvement of race relations in the city of New York. Trying to get people of fame and power to attend his benefit gives some of them, who Eli saw at that secret club, the idea that he's blackmailing them even though Eli only wanted them to show up and make the benefit be a success. It should have dawned on Eli that his life was in danger by what and who he saw at the club the night before and the death of Jill the next morning but he's so wrapped up with his dream of racial harmony that he didn't realize just how really dangerous things were for him. Still those in power can't take any chances with him blowing their cover and exposing them and in the end they took things into their own hands and that spells D-E-A-T-H for Eli. Al Pacino's performance in "People I Know" is what I think is one the best of his career on par if not better the his fine work in both "Godfather" movies as well as his roles in "GlenGarry Glen Ross" and "Scent Of A woman" for which he won an Academy Award for best actor. For some strange reason "People I Know" has never been released theatricality but went straight to the video and DVD market like some B-Movie you would see on an airplane for free? Besides Al Pacino there's fine performances in the movie by it top-rate cast of Kim Basinger Ryan O'Neal Richard Schiff Tea Leoni Robert Kline and Bill Nunn as a fiery Al Sharpton-like Reverend Lyle Blunt who stole almost every scene that he was in. It's Al Pacino who really carried the movie "People I Know" with his both sensitive and tragic role of Eli Wurman who was so absorbed in the good that he was trying to do that he didn't see the evil that was all around him for years that he only noticed when it was too late. I have to warn you that "People I Know" is a very dark and depressing film and it has no happy ending but it's so "ON" to whats happening in the world of politics and business today that it should be a must for every serious movie goer.