Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

Directed by: James Foley

Starring: Jack Lemon, Al Pacino

**

For anyone who works in the real estate business or anyone who works on the level of commission as the characters of Glengarry Glen Ross, the film is probably a masterpiece in authenticity. For anyone else, its more of an overacted but well shot adaptation of something I believe should have stuck with the stage.

A film that really came to mind while watching Glengarry Glen Ross is Louis Malle's My Dinner with Andre. Both are films that rely so heavily on dialogue that if performances are spot on, a lot is left to be desired. Both films are based on plays and neither strays far from a single location in which the camera must remain consistent but never boring. Director James Foley does a very good job in managing his shots often with simple close ups or medium shots and never mroe complicated than a simple dolly back to highten suspense. The conflict that creates that suspense is simple. Four salesmen attempting to sell premier properties in Arizona. None of them however have very good prospective buyers and won't get any good ones until prove they can sell. There's also a Cadillac up for grabs and of course the one who fails, gets fired.

The premise here is much more engaging than what is made of it throughout the film. Yes, there are times when you are interested in who will get fired or what alternatives these characters will find in order to save their jobs but none of them really make you sit on the edge of your seat begging the intelligent dialogue to reveal answers. Its almost as if the movie is too intelligent for its own good. Like I said, I have no doubt that its authentic, but as I've said many times, authentic doesn't necessary make something entertaining (see The Wire).

So with a simple plot, smart dialogue and appropriate filmmaking, what makes this movie fail? Well, Al Pacino is in it so few will be surprised when I suggest that the performances are way over the top. I'm not one to criticize Pacino for overacting as even when he does it works. Not here. Here he just yells too much for no reason. His co-star Ed Harris, yells all the time. Those are the two glaring examples of overacting. Alec Baldwin is guilty of being way overly dramatic as I always accuse him of being in anything except a comedy. Alan Arkin isn't over- anything. He's kind of a ghost in this film and Kevin Spacey's character is just a jerk for no reason. He comes across very one dimensional and is only construde as the bad guy because there's no way someone with so little depth could be the good guy. That brings us to Jack Lemon. The one bright point of this film, at least when it comes to performances. I wasn't suprised to see that the lone Oscar nomination this film receieved was for Pacino but I was disappointed to see how overlooked Lemon was. He was excellent in every aspect of his role. He plays a sleezy salesman perfectly but he's human enough to understand his plight. If nothing else, his scenes were entertaining and authentic... something the rest of the film was missing.

Being based on a play, Glengarry Glen Ross relied on its dialogue and performances. Like My Dinner with Andre, that dialogue was too smart for its own good but unlike Dinner with Andre, the performances weren't consistent with the film. To put it in a much more simple context... the characters were just very angry all the time, no wonder they couldn't sell any properties.