People I Know 2002

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: [O]ne of the most scathing looks at the PR business since Sweet Smell of Success. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: The movie's stock 60's nostalgia is annoyingly facile. In glibly evoking heroes like Kennedy and King, the movie succumbs to the same mindless name-dropping it purports to decry. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: The movie is weighted down with an excess of plot points that fail to coalesce. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: An ambitious, high-minded flop that wants to do good in the world, a failure with a pedigree, if you will. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The story collapses like a bad tip to Liz Smith. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: Awkwardly derivative. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: Al Pacino gives a career-crowning performance under Dan Algrant's perceptive direction. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: Trashy and lurid as this movie is, it's certainly not boring, and it keeps its star in hog heaven throughout. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Miscast and badly thought out, People I Know needed more -- and less -- than it got. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: It was filmed in and around the World Trade Center, and the subsequent cuts, reshoots and sleights of hand designed to obscure that fact prove devastating. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: The picture has a lax, sleepy vibe: There's never anything taut or electric about it. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Dropped into this ocean of bathos, even Al can't tread water -- at that precise moment, he and his performance drown. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: Watchable but dramatically scattered. Read more

Derek Adams, Time Out: Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: Sometimes incisive but finally overbaked drama. Read more

David Rooney, Variety: The screenplay is taut and intelligent, sizzling with enough sharp dialogue and dark humor to coast over its flaws. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: An expired shelf life is integral to the movie's downbeat charm. Read more