People I Know

I watched "People I Know" this weekend at the lake while trying to cool down. Haven't heard of it? It stars Al Pacino, Kim Basinger, Richard Schiff (Toby from the West Wing), and Tea Leoni. Still doesn't ring any bells? The film was a "Sundance darling" for a little while but never got a release in theaters. Ebert played it in his Overlooked Film Festival a couple years ago since it contained one of the best Al Pacino performances (and he was good).

But the movie is really not so great, which was a little disappointing. It wasn't all that coherent and couldn't make things work like it wanted to work.

The best moment is in the deleted scenes. The film contained a surreal shot of the World Trade Center at dawn, which then flipped 90 degrees until the World Trade Center was fully contained in the frame, but sideways, and then it fades to Al Pacino's tired face. It worked so well in the movie, especially because it makes you realize later that whenever they talked about "Wall Street" they had dubbed it over "The World Trade Center." In fact the movie set a house of pleasure with opium and prostitutes on the 42nd floor of one of the buildings.

Perhaps it is obvious why the director decided to pull the shot and delete the references. For a movie to be at Sundance just a few months after September 11, the symbol of the WTC had changed dramatically, and no one would have been able to see past its new significance.

Unfortunately, the shot of the World Trade Center rather tied the movie together, would have made the end feel much better, and would have come close to just making the whole thing work. It may not have succeeded but it would have come close.