Very silly movie, filled with stupid one liners and Jewish references thru out. It was a serious movie but could not be taken seriously. A familiar movie plot...Being at the wrong place at the wrong time. An atrocious subplot, involving Kim Bassinger. Very robotic and too regimented. I have noticed that Al Pacinos acting abilities seem to be going downhill. A troubleshooter with troubles , but nothing more troubling than Pacinos horrible Atlanta accent. Damage control needs to fix this damage of a film. OK my one liners are bad, but not as bad as the ones in this film. This movie manages to not only be boring but revolting as well. Usually a revolting film is watchable for the wrong reasons. This movie is unwatchable. I did manage to sit through this. The plot ,if written a tad bit better, with , perhaps a little better acting and eliminating the horrendous subplot,and even dumber jokes, could have pulled this thriller out of the doldrums. What we are left with is a dull, silly movie that made sure it was drilled into our heads that Eli Wurman was Jewish. An embarrassment to all the good Jewish folk everywhere.

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.

This film is about a period that has come to an end, a complete end, before the earthquake, mudslide and volcanic eruption known as the Twin Tower Terrorist Attack or 9/11 for short. New York politics, and beyond American politics seen through the eyes of a mediocre, Jewish PR agent who is losing his main customer and who is still giving time to Afro-American causes not understanding that they don't want and they don't need white Jewish good-doing benevolent liberals to take care of them. They have come of age and start understanding they have to take care of themselves. On the other side, the supposedly liberal white politicians have become so corrupted that they cannot stand upright any more and they just want to lie low and disappear from the public eye before it's too late. A new generation has not come out of the wings yet and they are more or less obliged to last a little longer. The subject of the film is that trite and that superficial if not superfluous, and the final murder does not add anything to this rather thin plot. Yet the film is a rather good film because Al Pacino is acting his part so well that he really looks the part of the poor absolutely conscious old man who is doing one more gig before going out for ever to some solitary and telephone-deprived barn on a Virginia farm. Is he overacting as some think? I don't think so. In fact he is surrounded by actors who are second zone as compared to him, so that what is good acting looks like overacting against that background. The real question is then why did Al Pacino accept to act in a film with no one next to him that could compete with his long experience and his phenomenal professional profile? No one can answer this question, except Al Pacino himself. But that is often what happens with aging actors. They are only proposed films that are made for them individually so that they end up shining bright in a dark alley and blinding us at the same time instead of making other actors sparkle and glow.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

Well, it's not a very positive world that is shown in this movie. As Kim Basinger's character (Vicc) says towards the end, "We are all kind of lurching"- this is so true. E.'s (Al Pacino) life is pathetic, to say the less. The only hope, the only sunshine ray in this movie comes from the real, deep friendship between Vicc and E. It's a great film, though, because there no bullshit in there. It goes beyond apparency. All these political and Hollywood characters are rotten, to the core, and in fact, desperate. They get drowned into alcohol, drugs and sex to loose sight of themselves. They have lost sense of real life, of real self. As far as interpretation is concerned, Kim Basinger, Al Pacino, Ryan O'Neal and Tea Leoni are all great along with the other actors. Probably the best performance of Al Pacino's career ! There, he is, far from his early Actors Studio style (a technique which most of the time gave poor results, artificial play) , just so true, so simple, so natural, in every detail. Whatever, better not look at this movie if you are already depressed or moody ! Watch it when you feel great, rather. Then, it won't affect you and you'll be able to appreciate it for what it is: a study of our times made by a naturalist.