People I Know (2002)

A New York press agent must scramble when his major client becomes embroiled in a huge scandal.

Director:

Daniel Algrant (as Dan Algrant)

Writer:

Jon Robin Baitz

Stars:

Al Pacino, Téa Leoni, Ryan O'Neal

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Al Pacino	...	Eli Wurman
Kim Basinger	...	Victoria Gray
Ryan O'Neal	...	Cary Launer
Téa Leoni	...	Jilli Hopper
Richard Schiff	...	Elliot Sharansky
Bill Nunn	...	The Reverend Lyle Blunt
Robert Klein	...	Dr. Sandy Napier
Mark Webber	...	Ross
Eldon Bullock	...	Washroom Attendant
Juliet Papa	...	Radio Announcer (voice)
Ramsey Faragallah	...	David Fielding
Brian McConnachie	...	Jamie Hoff
Frank Wood	...	Michael Wormly
Rex Reed	...	Himself
Lewis Dodley	...	Himself

Storyline

Eli Wurman is a decadent drug addicted New Yorker public relation, who is promoting a social event on behalf of Afro-Americans. Along two days of his crazy life, the day of the event and the day before, he makes contacts and favors, 'kissing asses', using drugs etc. Victoria Gray is his widow sister-in-law and passion in the past. Cary Launer is an Oscar winner actor and principal client of Eli. On the day before of the event, Eli finds out secrets that evolve powerful men of America.

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Plot Keywords:

scandal | new york | actor | protection | corruption | 

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Taglines:

He thought he'd seen it all, until the night he saw too much

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language, drug use and brief sexual images

Details

Country:

USA Germany

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 November 2002 (Peru)

Also Known As:

Influences

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$22,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$34,211, 27 April 2003, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$121,972, 18 May 2003

Company Credits

Production Co:

Myriad Pictures, Wildwood Enterprises, Galena

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

As one of the subplots was fairly critical about the mayor of New York, this film sat on the shelves for two years following the terrorist attacks on the USA of 11 September 2001, a time when the city's mayor Guiliani redeemed himself in many peoples' eyes.

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Quotes

Victoria Gray: Is that what we're doing, E? We're surviving?
Eli Wurman: Don't underestimate it; it's harder than it looks.

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Connections

References Larry King Live (1985)

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Soundtracks

Bye Bye Blackbird
Music by Ray Henderson
Lyrics by Mort Dixon
Performed by Jon Hendricks

User Reviews

public relations

A public relations agent in New York (Al Pacino) tries to recapture his misplaced ideals by organizing an event in response to the mayor's crackdown on crime, a crackdown which results in widespread arrests and deportations. 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. When she's murdered later that night in her hotel room while Pacino is reclined and nearly passed out in the bathtub, the story begins to be a rather ingenious combination of this effort to mobilize the intellectual, political, and religious elite in response to the heavy-handed mayor, while also wading through the colorful and dangerous gutter in which many of them occasionally like to plod around in. 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.