People I Know

Plot synopsis:
Eli Wurman (Al Pacino) is a Jewish publicist on the out, but all he knows is how to hustle and cajole, threaten and persuade. The hazy mania of his everyday life is fuelled by a steady stream of prescription drugs and alcohol. One night, Eli's last remaining "big client" Cary Launer (Ryan O'Neal) – an actor considering a campaign for political office – entreats Eli to take care of his latest publicity mess, a dangerous liaison with Jilli Hopper (Téa Leoni), a hard-shelled, quick-tongued television actress with a soft centre and a taste for illegal drugs.
The actress takes Eli to a drug-and-sex den, a playground for the rich and famous, where she claims to be looking for a toy. Jilli is escorted off the premises by security. As she demands to know "Where is my toy?", she finds it and tells the guards, "I got all of you now." Eli is too stoned to understand the exchange.
Eli takes her back to the hotel room, where he takes more pills and passes out right after witnessing what appears to be the actress's murder. In his opiate daze, he cannot be sure. By the next morning, the memory is buried. Eli needs to pull together a charity benefit. He is tempted to leave New York for good with his former sister-in-law, Victoria.
But, his work is interrupted by the police who question him and by acquaintances trying to ascertain how much Eli has seen and recalls. Eli finally realizes he is involved in something politically dangerous, and powerful forces are at play to keep his mouth shut. As he strives to bring together the people he knows – members of the Black and Jewish communities, film stars and media – for the grand fundraiser, Eli's life is in grave danger.

Tags: murder

Review:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
****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.
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..
Years of drugs have diminished his effectiveness, and the drug culture is an essential part of the film's murky subplot, that has Tea Leoni as a strung out actress who Pacino bails out of jail and ends up going with to a crazy party where people are smoking opium.
With a great part for Ryan O'Neal as an Oscar winning actor contemplating politics, and some very well cast parts and a great stand-off in the kitchen at the restaurant where the benefit takes place between a leading black minister and his bodyguards and his Jewish nemesis and his bodyguards as well, the film lashes out at the hypocrisy of all of them by focusing in on an addled and vulnerable publicity agent who's just about at the end of his rope..
It is true, this is not one of those escapist films, but one that will leave you thinking, even watching it again to see if in deed he was the one to leak the truth.Although I am a New Yorker, you can find these self absorbed, image conscious people anywhere, maybe that neighbor that you just can't figure out.And I am not in the psychological field.
"People I Know" is a clunker with no one to root for and no one to care about -- despite the game efforts of a talented cast.Pacino delivers his usual tour de force as Eli Wurman, a past-his-prime publicity agent hollowed out by a lifetime of moral corruption.
But unlike Michael Corleone, it's impossible to have an emotional investment in this character, his dilemma, or his fate.The film traces Eli's preparations for a benefit for a liberal political cause, while distracted by a client's (Ryan O'Neal, good in an underwritten part) latest "dirty laundry" -- in this case, a TV actress companion who's gotten involved with the wrong people.
As Eli's sister-in-law, Kim Basinger manages to evoke sympathy despite implausible plot mechanics.This movie is strictly for those who like watching Pacino strut his stuff, and enjoy the other principals.
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.
'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..
The story, as I perceived it, takes place in today's New York with today's personalities of the moment.At one point of the film when Eli Wurman, played by Al Pacino, is talking to his widowed sister-in-law, Victoria Gray, and he asks her if she remembers when they had marched in Selma?
It shows a side to this character that deep down inside all he cared for in his life was being at the right places, surrounded by the same celebrities he stooped to serve.How about the other aspect of the film about the rich, possible would-be-sponsors of the cause, as libertines and swingers in an opium den on a Wall Street club?
This film is very broad in scope, reflecting the complex world of public relations, politicians, actors and disappointments.Pacino is Eli Wurman, a PR man who is having his fill of the world/NYC publicist career he lives in.
If I have stopped one person from wasting some of their precious life watching this film I shall die happy.Unutterably dull, although since it stars Al Pacino I was fooled into thinking that at any moment something interesting was going to happen.
What a waste of a great cast and an idea that could have been an interesting story of a "Day in the Life..."  Cure your insomnia if you have it and watch this movie.
A publicity hack at the grubby ending of what seems to have once been a distinguished and idealistic career Pacino plays his part looking like an unmade bed and assaulting everyone with a totally bogus and inconsistent southern accent.The plot spools out this way and that with so many loose ends and improbabilities that the mind reels (and then retreats).Kim Basinger is there, not doing much.
And Kim Basinger wasn't even in the film long enough to deliver a performance of any kind.The movie's story had no momentum.
Kim Basinger and Ryan O'Neal (the guy we now from "Love Story") are also starring this movie, as well as Téa Leoni.What the director was trying to say wasn't bad, the point he wanted to make was good, but the way he has done it wasn't good at all.
I don't see why Al Pacino has chosen to play this role, but as a true Pacino fan, I think this was the worst movie I've ever seen him in.Not exactly worth watching.5/10.
I rented this movie based on the strength of the cast -- Pacino, Schiff, Leoni, and Bassinger should make for a decent film.
Hollow acting -- Al Pacino is to the point of almost phoning his lines in, although the supporting cast did well with what little they were given, especially Tea Leoni.We're only teased a bit with slightest bit of intrigue, the story advances only in jerky motions, and once the character has been developed enough, you find you really don't care that much for him.
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.
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.
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'.
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.
The crossing point is the public relation character played by Al Paccino, as he is the witness of the crime and the instigator of the evening.If the script is terrible without any decent dialogs and the directing void of any sense of drama, the performance of Al is memorable: how many fellows can be as much convincing as a powerful and feared man (as "The Godfather") as here as a little servant (see also "Donnie Brasco").Actually, the big young lion has become a tired old one.
This passing of ages is very moving, because it makes the audience ponders about getting old too.But his slowness is only a make-up because he can get back his energy in Church scene.Maybe it is a good thing that the movie is so awful because it put the starlight on Al's talent!.
Many people in the cinema fell asleep, other went away before the show ended...now i know that I'll never watch a movie worse than this....it's impossible.
Al Pacino is an actor I sometimes like but, surprisingly, not in his most beloved roles (I hate "Scent of a Woman," love "Glengarry Glen Ross" and his 70's films).
Eli Wurman (Al Pacino, in another outstanding performance) is a decadent drug addicted New Yorker public relation, who is promoting a social event on behalf of Afro-Americans.
Launer is a Hollywood star considering running for political office; Jilli may have known too much about various sex-and-drug scandals involving Launer and other prominent personalities.I was largely persuaded to watch this film by its stellar cast, including Al Pacino, Kim Basinger, Ryan O'Neal and Téa Leoni.
People I Know (2002) ** (out of 4) Press agent Eli Wurman (Al Pacino) is trying to get together a big benefit but other things in his life starts to cause problems.
The only thing that keeps the film interesting are the performances with Pacino leading the way.
But that's life.Pacino is lovely in this film; Leoni shows some depth we haven't seen often.
If you wanna see rare, and sometimes boring character studies, don't check this one, this one  at least is telling something, check some 70s movies like 'Five easy pieces' or the antiplot 'The King of Marvin Gardens', both directed by Bob Rafelson, a mediocre director and screenwriter I think; but they both also have wonderful, uncanny performances of Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino's contemporary..
As far as interpretation is concerned, Kim Basinger, Al Pacino, Ryan O'Neal and Tea Leoni are all great along with the other actors.
PEOPLE I KNOW centers around the character of Eli Wurman (Al Pacino).
However, as his life begins to unravel, the film fails to move itself towards an organic conclusion and shortchanges the character of Eli Wurman in the process.I watched PEOPLE I KNOW with my fiancée, who thought the film was dull until the quasi-thriller elements appeared.
PEOPLE I KNOW (2003) ** Al Pacino, Ryan O'Neal, Kim Basinger, Tea Leoni, Richard Schiff, Bill Nunn, Robert Klein, Mark Webber, Peter Gerety.
Yesterday I had a opportunity to see new Pacino's movie, and I must say I enjoyed watching every minute of it, not because it's fascinating story line, plot, which is very smart, strong and difficult, but for great performances that Al Pacino, Kim Basinger and Tea Leoni gave.
A solid character study in a New York state of mind, this film offers a good cast and a meager story which gets buried in nonstop dialogue most of which is delivered by Pacino.
Al Pacino is a world-weary New York show biz publicist in People I Know, so world-weary in fact that it looks like he hasn't slept since he finished shooting on Insomnia in 2002.
Director Daniel Algrant pulls great performances out of Pacino, Kim Basinger and Tea Leoni and Robert Klein, who all seem to relish the chance to speak well written, smart dialogue.
if you seek fist and gun fights, explosions, over-done remarks, syrupy drama, gadgets, spoon feeding, star power, detective story, good over evil, a good time - you are in the wrong movie, maybe try again in your next life.watch it if you like to discover gems in the trash pile of work disowned by same self-important nobodys that this film is so good at portraying/betraying.IMHO, it's a less fantastic version of 'the cube', but then, lots people hated that one too..
The only good thing about "People I Know" is that it serves as a perfect example of movies that Al Pacino should avoid performing in.
The cast was great.And so was the story at times and that's what makes "People I know" a rather frustrating movie experience.
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.
Although it's nowhere as great as his other films (subdued and you sometimes see him peek out of the role), it is Pacino, and that's good enough to invest 2 hours of your life in watching anytime..
CONTAINS SPOILERS BELOW As a long time Al Pacino fan, I decided to rent this film because the DVD box made it seem like an interesting watch.
As an actor, Pacino is never afraid to take chances, and his work here is excellent as usual.The supporting cast of Tea Leoni (who steals the movie as a hedonistic TV actress/model), Ryan O'Neal (it was good to see him on screen again, but it was a shame that he wasn't on more) Kim Basinger (as a Southern Bell hot to trot for Eli) and Robert Kline (who knew he could play a menacing character?) was terrific.The basic premise was interesting, but the story gets caught up in political self-righteousness and loses focus.
A powerful behind-the-scenes man in politics and show business finds himself skidding into a very public scandal in this taut drama entitled,People I Know.It stars Al Pacino,Kim Basinger,Ryan O'Neal and Téa Leoni.The movie was directed by Daniel Algrant.Eli Wurman was raised in the deep South, attended Harvard Law School, and has devoted his spare time to progressive political causes since working alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960's.