People I Know (2002)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Absolutely Fantastic

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Raised in the deep south and ivy league educated, Eli Wurman(Al Pacino)is a resourceful and conniving publicist that has managed and manipulated public lives of the rich and famous. Caught up in Manhattan night life and the dependence on medications from his trusted physician Dr. Sandy Napier(Robert Klein), Eli begins losing his clients; but not his trust in mankind. It appears his powerful career is slipping when his last major client, movie actor Cary Launer(Ryan O'Neal), becomes quite the manipulator himself. He decides to fire Eli and try his hand at politics; knowing where the proverbial bodies are buried. As a favor to Cary, Eli escorts a young starlet(Tia Leoni)to her hotel only to think he is witness to her murder. If his drug addled memory is correct, he can bring down some of the most powerful and influential people in the nation. Does Eli know just enough...or so much he becomes a major threat to his own survival? Pacino really gets caught up in this role; but is it worthy of his reputation? Yea or nay, I enjoyed him to a certain degree. Also in the cast: Kim Basinger, Richard Schiff, Bill Nunn and Ivan Martin.

With 'People I Know' Dan Algrant tells a story of how the rich and powerful can get away with anything and everything. In the film, it is an actress, Jill (Tea Leoni) and a PR (Al Pacino) who fall victim as they threaten to expose the shady potentially scandalous secrets of the rich elites. Algrant's portrayal is very one-sided because he shows all the wealthy characters as big bad wolves and the lesser fortunate people in a more humane light. Examples include the scene where Tea's face lightens up as she thinks of a house in the country, and the sequences between Pacino and Basinger where we see a vulnerable side of Eli. It is the performances that stand out. Al Pacino displays a very intense performance, of a vulnerable and relatively weak character. It is entirely different from the kind of roles he has played earlier and one of his best parts. Kim Basinger lightens the screen as the supportive and loving Vicci. I liked how Algrant demonstrates the special relationship between Eli and Vicci. Their scenes together were some of the best moments of the movie. Tea Leoni is superb despite having a small role. Ryan O'Neal and Richard Schiff are adequate. 'People I Know' is a small film and the ending perhaps may not appeal to many but I thought it was an interesting, even though somewhat partial, take on how power corrupts and destroys.

I think that when Al Pacino, the great actor that he is, retires; people will look back at this film and these sorts of films he was in and will use them as pieces of evidence to suggest that even if the film overall was a little weak and if it was a film that made errors, the one stand out feature was indeed, Al Pacino and his acting. It's films like these that will not only highlight Pacino and his ability to carry a film but will also suffice as an example as 'a film you'd watch only for its main star'.People I Know is a film that simmers and simmers; it's a film that you put in a pot on a low burner level in an attempt to etch out all the goodness and taste that you believe it to contain. These come in the form of the strong cast, the nice cinematography, some amusing scenes that hit and miss as well as the multiple plot devices the film has. Unfortunately, People I Know is a miss-mash of numerous plot paths, stiff dialogue and suffers from time to time of scene in which you just don't seem to care about. The film attempts to look and feel like Scorsese's 1999 film Bringing Out the Dead but with a publicist instead of a medic and a limousine instead of an ambulance. Just like Cage's character from that film, Eli Wurman (Pacino) has numerous encounters with some rather strange people whilst at the same time makes life difficult for himself.The primary problem that I personally had with the film was that it opened up all these ideas and plot paths and yet doesn't really choose to go down any of them: there is the incident with the girl who is raped and subsequently dies in the hotel room, there is the route of the elf discovery drama as Eli tries hard not to hit rock bottom and there is the simmering tension between politicians that seem to revolve around race. This made me realise afterwards that even though these things were hinted at and included, there isn't any closure on any of these events –the dead girl is ignored when I thought the film would become a drama centring around a possible framing of Eli; the mood of the film and the way Pacino acts Eli suggests he's on the verge of meltdown and yet he remains upbeat enough for the duration to see it out and lastly, the way the politicians and their situation revolving around illegal photographs of themselves plays out is a great idea for a film but People I Know just seems to brush it under the rug; alas, despite all these opportunities, the film isn't really about anything and any 'update' we are told about is through television news coverage within the film which was pretty poor.Despite this, the film is effective in its little things. Eli is almost pathetic in his attempts to get people to come to his function and you genuinely feel for him since at the time, you don't know if he is successful or popular or whatever. Also, introducing a character and giving them all this build up before merely killing them off might be an effective way of toying with the audience but if it's forgotten about later on in the film and doesn't come back to either haunt the protagonist or create problems then what the hell is the point? Thus, the opening thirty minutes or so is technically a waste of time bar the other, tiny things people say and do. People I Know is a unique film in the way it feels bloated and yet by the end, it's very deflated. There is so much going on in this film involving deaths and illness and corruption that the story gets confused and doesn't know what to do with it all; the screenplay overpowers itself which is truly unique if not ironic since by the end, everything is still left relatively 'up in the air'. The racism divide is built up to the function but nothing really kicks off; Eli's health is built up as bad and visits to the doctor confirm this but without spoiling the ending, nothing really happens; the TV reports the girl's death and police are investigating but, you guessed it: nothing really happens thereafter. If you're going to watch People I Know, marvel at the way the film plays around with things and at the way it makes its mistakes in releasing all the suspense and intrigue. Marvel at the way it looks, not at the way it speaks and of course; there's always Al Pacino.

Something happens after the first hour of "People I Know" – it gets interesting.Up to that point, with Al Pacino playing lapdog to Ryan O'Neal, the startlingly beautiful Tea Leoni as an emotionally bereft television starlet, and a smattering of good actors in great roles, *People I Know* seemed to stagger the way of those listless, shiftless, self-referential High Society movies about unethical publicists, dumb actors and immoral politicians. (Yawn.) But as it happens, there is a powerful little movie lurking beneath the façade of PR puerility.Al Pacino is New York publicity agent Eli Wurman, whose phone doesn't ring as much as it used to. He panders to his Last Big Client, actor Cary Launer (O'Neal), to the extent of babysitting Launer's latest fling, Jilli (Leoni), to bundle her out of town on Launer's request. But in the course of tagging along with the flighty Jilli on one of her regular all-night industry benders, Eli gets very bent and Jilli gets very dead.Desperately attempting to pull together a publicity event (which no A-Listers want to attend, despite his puling at their heels), Eli must contend with not only the shadowy types who killed Jilli, but with the *real* scary people who inhabit the nether regions of high society – politicians and clergy.After seeing him in various dispensable B-roles, Richard Schiff comports himself very respectfully as a powerful politician, as does Bill Nunn, as a feisty clergyman.Pacino plays exhausted better than almost anyone and this movie's breakneck PR pace, coupled with Eli's staggering gait and slurred small-town delivery makes us want to get stranded on a desert island as respite from the dogged ulterior motives he encounters - and utilizes himself - in his minute-to-minute tribulations. His doctor (Robert Klein), though advising him of how close he is to total collapse, prescribes him drugs to keep him standing. Victoria (the still-luminescent Kim Basinger), widow to Eli's brother, also senses his cliff-edge demeanor and enjoins him to accept her offer of warmth and quietude on her farm. Before it's too late.And "too late" is now. Just as Eli's hard work has paid off, with blurbs in the papers, a mention on the Regis show and a promise of bedding down with Kim Basinger; just as we are threatened with a sappy ending – the movie suddenly gets New York on us, disallowing Eli even one moment to savor his comeback, as that murderous element that he encountered with Jilli and almost forgot about, comes back to ensure there are no loose ends.As Eli's phone starts ringing again, there is no one left to field the calls.