Product Details

• Actors: Al Pacino, Téa Leoni, Ryan O'Neal, Kim Basinger, Richard Schiff
• Directors: Daniel Algrant
• Writers: Jon Robin Baitz
• Producers: Karen Tenkhoff, Kirk D'Amico, Leslie Urdang, Michael Nozik, Nellie Nugiel
• Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: French (Unknown), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Miramax
• DVD Release Date: July 20, 2004
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0001XAPWY
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #19,233 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "People I Know" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Al Pacino shambles about in pure weary Late Pacino form in People I Know, a 1970s-style paranoid number with a political tinge to it. Pacino plays an old-school publicist, once a friend to Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, who's now down to his last big client, a vaguely dangerous movie star (nice turn by Ryan O'Neal). As Pacino tries to keep his client's indiscretions out of the papers, he's dragged into an intriguing drugs-murder-politics conspiracy. There are juicy possibilities in Jon Robin Baitz's script, and with a topnotch director and a little more oomph they might have blossomed. As it is, despite a couple of nifty gotchas, the movie never quite gets into full stride. Tea Leoni shines as an addicted actress with a flinty vocabulary, but Kim Basinger is less lucky with her plot-device role. Pacino looks as though he's about to draw his last breath in every shot, which is precisely how he should look. --Robert Horton

Product Description

Academy Award(R) winners Al Pacino (Best Actor, SCENT OF A WOMAN, 1992) and Kim Basinger (Best Supporting Actress, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, 1997) bring the star power to this powerful and provocative thriller! For old-school public relations kingpin Eli Wurman (Pacino), there's never been a crisis he couldn't fix or a scandal he couldn't handle – until now! When Eli's best client (Ryan O'Neal -- MALIBU'S MOST WANTED) and his starlet girlfriend (Téa Leoni -- HOLLYWOOD ENDING) become tangled in a particularly messy situation, Eli ends up seeing more than he's supposed to. Now, the man who made it his business to know everything suddenly knows too much! With an unforgettable performance critics are calling one of Al Pacino's best, you won't want to miss a minute of this gripping motion picture.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For Whom The Bell Tolls, April 18, 2005

By	fCh "fCh" (GMT-5, USA) - See all my reviews

The biggest accomplishment of "People I Know" is in capturing the crisis of the leftist/progressive movement in the US. It shows us how little it means anymore the principled against the option of a (political) career. The political left, by and large, has been institutionalized around few names and causes relevant today as name-dropping/historical material--see all references, spoken or visual, to the past scattered throughout the film.

Eli Wurman, Pacino's character, is a relic of a time past who still leverages a reputation, a decreasing circle of friends, and a Harvard law degree, to defend the weak--in today's version, the post-9/11 illegal immigrants. The problem, we find, is that people, at best, find his events as opportunities to advance their agendas rather than move towards a common goal. Wurman is spent, slow to come to terms with the 'new realities,' a cunning and quixotic mix of individual who ponders getting the job done with doing the right thing; interesting tensions, portrayed well by Pacino. Donnie Brasco comes to mind as another film-role where Pacino's character is weathered down.

Pacino's acting is just shy of excellent, while the supporting roles are inconsistent. Somehow, Kim Bassinger doesn't seem to fit the story very well; casting vs. screenplay problem. From the commentary option, we learn lots of tidbits, and about something that has come to plague lots of recent films: this film was turned rather quickly, without (enough) attention to details of interpretation or making. Such an approach is probably what leaves the attentive viewer with the feeling of everything goes or impromptu. Even actors such as Pacino and Bassinger cannot salvage such a production.

All in all, this is a great and timely portrayal of a tired activist movement--a must see for the aware citizen. As well, the viewer may do well by ignoring the racial apropos of some reviewers here.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some Incisive Moments, but Mostly Meandering., August 5, 2004

By	mirasreviews (McLean, VA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

Eli Wurman (Al Pacino) is a down-and-out New York publicist whose career has seen better days. Once the friend and confidant of the entertainment elite, he has only one remaining A-list client, playboy movie star Cary Launer (Ryan O'Neal). Undaunted in his support of humanitarian causes, Eli insists that Cary speak at a charity benefit that he is organizing when Cary asks him to do some dirty work -bail a girlfriend out of jail. After bailing Jilly (Tea Leoni) out, Eli reluctantly takes her to look for an important item that she has lost. The next day, while frantically trying to organize his charity benefit, a drug-addled Eli tries to piece together what he saw the night before and what it might mean.

"People I Know" is a hybrid political thriller and character study. As a political thriller it's interesting, but not thrilling enough. It spares no one in its revelation of the hypocrisy and abuse of power behind a New York Senate race. The indictment of the city's most prominent citizens, although obviously unrealistic, is unsettling enough to be interesting. The film's best scenes feature Richard Schiff being ruthless as eminent businessman Elliot Sharansky. Al Pacino's Eli Wurman doesn't fare so well. The film takes place over a period of only about 26 hours, during which Eli is unraveling, both emotionally and physically, all while organizing a benefit and getting caught up in political intrigues beyond his control. I wish the film had the urgency that the situation implies. Eli still has a salesman's pitch, but is drug-dependent and only intermittently lucid. This doesn't really work. It makes him difficult to watch and only passively involved in what's going on. It doesn't help that Pacino's Georgian accent is as inconsistent as his character's thought processes. "People I Know", like Eli, has some moments of clarity, but it needed to be a lot tighter.

The DVD: Bonus features include 2 deleted scenes, with commentary, and an audio commentary by director Dan Algrant and Gregory Mosher, who has nothing to do with the film. Mosher is a writer and director himself and must be a friend of Algrant's. This arrangement works better than I might expect. Mosher is able to point out elements of the film from the perspective of a viewer, which Algrant can then comment on. The commentary is about filming -the actors, make-up, wardrobe, anecdotes, etc.- not about the film's themes. It's a reasonably good commentary.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A reality beyond the eyes can see, May 2, 2003

By	Deglie Simoni (Lisboa Portugal) - See all my reviews

It is very difficult to show something that is hidden and in front of our faces. Sometimes this matter takes a sensionality show like a playing game, other times the director can not transmit the real and invisible world. However this is not the case of this film. It is very precise and perfect in the message.

This film shows us what we can not see with our common eyes. Another level of what is real. Everything may be programmed and exactly directed to a certain target.

We normally see the effects and not the cause.

People that enjoyed Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick, American Psycho will certainly enjoy this excellent movie.