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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Night He Saw too Much, 5 Feb 2006
"I like that about the movie," Pacino said, "There was an earlier draft in which the crime stuff was more in the foreground, but no, this isn't a crime movie, it's about Eli's personality. He has a key line: 'I just can't stop.' This is what he does. He knows people. He fixes things. He's got his causes. Maybe he's gay, but he's never explored that possibility. He just keeps moving." Eli Wurman is an exhausted New York press agent, taking too many drugs. He is a man torn between compromise and idealism. It is a carefully-tuned performance, in which Eli descends into a long night of drugs and is finally so tired and confused he doesn't know if he has witnessed a murder, or not. Al Pacino plays Eli Wurman, and it a performance that is not over the top but not far from it. His one client, Ryan O'Neal, is caught in a big mess and it concerns a junked up minor actress, Jilli Hopper, played by Tea Leoni. He is not sure what he has seen after he escorts Jilli home- was it murder or was it not? His sister-in-law, Kim Basinger, is his one true defender and the one person who may love him. What a mess he is in. It seems everyone is after him. The dangerous client, the movie star, wants to pay Eli off ,and join a political party and he wants Elliott Sharansky, Richard Schiff to help him win a political seat. Eli needs to take charge of himself, can he do it? Can he get himself together to save things? As one of the plots was critical about the mayor of New York, this film sat on the shelves for two years following the terrorist attacks on the USA of 9/11. We all remember that Mayor Giuliani was a hero. The film came out in late 2002. It has not made a splash. The film is disjointed at times. It is difficult to know where the film is heading. I couldn't quite like Pacino's character. I felt sorry for him, but it is not enough to carry to the film. Recommended. prisrob Feb. 06.
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