thomas4cinema

An office of real-estate developing salesmen is challenged by their company to either improve performance or go. In their desperation, some of them plot a heist to lay their hands on the safe with the latest “leads”, addresses of promising potential buyers. Indeed, next day, a break-in has happened, and the police is investigating.
Very very strange to try to explain what the film is about. The one-line starting-point turns into a psycho-drama of epic proportions – but on a microscopic scale. Ahem. The sad character played by an aged Jack Lemmon, still believing that he is competitive after years of failure (a very Willi Lohman character), Ed Harris being nothing short of creepy in his plotting of the theft, and most formidably (find it on YouTube, maybe as part of the “20 Mega-rants of film history”) the man who insulted his baby daughter on the phone, Alec Baldwin. His introductory speech, laying out the problem, the challenge, the rules and the impossibility that any of the losers present to hear his speech will ever be able to close any deal before hell freezes over, this speech indeed is movie history and I watched it about seven times now, need to practice more for the next Jour Fixe. Al Pacino (yes, this film is rimful of really weird stars) may log this in to be among his top 5 ever performances. And whoever played the man who wanted to sign some land but now his wife told him to cancel it and who throws himself into the charm machinery that is Al Pacino deserves and Oscar and compensation money anyway. Fabulous drama, and I cannot wait to check out next time the stage play comes around. (why did it take me 15 years to watch this I have no idea… was it a hit back when it came out?).