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 The
film's climax is truly interesting as we watch Wurman take his last leap from
show business to a better life and then finally come to the realization that
there's no true escape as we watch Wurman fail. I won't give away how he fails
but the ultimate result is disappointing and tragic.
Legendry director Stanley Kubrick's
final film before his death in 1999 was the vastly underrated "Eyes Wide Shut"
ultimately tainted by the relationship between then on-screen couple Tom Cruise
and Nicole Kidman, otherwise it's a rather engrossing and tension soaked film as
we watch a man fall into a world of sex and deceit after he's exposed to a seedy
and mysterious underbelly and a secret organization.
"People I know" seems as
if it's ripped every page from Kubrick's screenplay and attempts to somewhat
alter it with a sleek and domestic setting ala New York, but where it attempts
to mimic Kubrick's winning formula it manages to fail to a great extent. After
starring in the nearly unforgivable film "Simone" (Yes, I've mentioned it
numerous times and I hate that movie), Pacino tries his best with this
pretentious and lacking effort of filmmaking that reminded me of "Eyes Wide
Shut" but never managed to live towards its full potential.
Pacino plays Eli Wurman,
a show business press agent who is run ragged by his clients as he rushes back
and forth across New York City to save careers, appearing at and organizing
parties while realizing he's lost his soul in the underbelly of the Hollywood
social scene of "A" listers. He soon becomes caught in a conspiracy when he's
introduced to an underground sexual underbelly by whiney actress Jilli Hopper;
she is then killed by an unknown assailant while Wurman is passed out in the
bathtub slipping in and out of consciousness while watching the events take
place and is never sure what to make of what he's witnessed; he discovers
there's a secret organization of men who sit in shadows discussing what to make
of people who would expose what they don't want to be exposed.
With a story with so much
potential "People I know" is never sure where it wants to go with its plot; the
story is staggeringly grim and often times very dull making a sheer effort to
seem superior. Wurman is a man whose lost touch with what makes him human
discovering he's just become a lapdog to other executives and clients and
attempts to redeem his soul by constructing a race rally in which he'd bring
together an African American group civil rights leader and Cary Launer (Ryan
O'Neal: Love Story), the local politician with mysterious ties.
Wurman's only connection
into a world beyond the vacuous superficialities of the underworld of show
business and drugs is his widowed sister in law Victoria Gray who becomes his
tie to a better life for him. She constantly pops in and out of the film meeting
with him and cringing at his pale skin and somewhat drugged demeanor. Basinger
who's a wasted element in the film manages to become Wurman's salvation that is
so close but so far. As the aforementioned paragraph noted, "People I know" is
never sure where it wants to go with the story; is it a tale of romance? Is it a
tale of deceit? Is it a murder mystery? Perhaps a conspiracy tale? An
unrelenting expose into the seedy world of show business? A tale of
self-redemption? A character study? The story staggers in every direction
looking for a point towards its story but somehow takes the audience for granted
expecting us to decide for ourselves.
Pacino sleepwalks through
this ridiculous role that wastes this man's acting abilities featuring him half
asleep through most of his scenes while he acts off a basically shrill Tea Leoni,
an underused Ryan O'Neal, and Robert Klein who's given table scraps. The film
takes every measure to mimic "Eyes Wide Shut" with a plotline that is so
staggeringly similar to its predecessor it draws the line between ludicrous and
offensive. Like "Eyes Wide Shut" the main character is exposed to an underworld,
discovers he's in over his head when the people he thought he knew turn out to
be shady, the setting is grim and dark, the supporting characters never seem to
be honest or trustworthy and in the end they're left in shambles.
Robert Klein seems to
mimic Sidney Pollack's role in "Eyes Wide Shut" in which he informs the
character that he's really gotten himself in deep trouble and should pull back
before it’s too late. But there was a difference; Sidney Pollack gives a
magnetic and breathtaking monologue during "Eyes Wide Shut" in which he helps
Cruise's character truly comprehend the severity of his meddling, while the
often likable Robert Klein is given a merely tame and annoying monologue where
he seems to be reading from cue cards. We never feel urgency in Wurman's
meddling, we never feel tension or dread nor do we ever feel as if the
characters made a horrible mistake. In the end, the film ends as Wurman is too
late to redeem himself and finds he's just another microcosm in the world of
show business.
So much potential with a good concept and
tolerable performances from a great cast with the likes of Al Pacino, Ryan
O'Neal, Tea Leoni, and Kim Basinger, but fails with an inevitable end result of
mis-direction and pretentious directing courtesy of Daniel Algrant.
- Loosely based on
the life of NYC press agent Bobby Zarem.
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