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| A businessman doing a high wire act against a dramatic blue sky is the motif on this eye-catching poster for James Foley's Glengarry Glen Ross |
A real estate office gets threatened by imminent lay-offs, and the small staff are pushed to deliver results - or find another place of work.
Glengarry Glen Ross is written by David Mamet (Hannibal (2001)), based on his own same-titled 1983 play, and directed by great New-Yorker filmmaker James Foley (Reckless (1984)).
It is a really excellent film with an eminent ensemble: Jack Lemmon (It Happened to Jane (1959)) and Al Pacino (Two for the Money (2005)) deserve high-lighting, but really the whole lot are sublime. It is a sassy and compelling adaptation, which only brings the best with it from the stage version.
Glengarry Glen Ross works on many levels; it ends a bit suddenly, and the title, which refers to two different real estate developments that the office try to sell, is a bit opaque.
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 12.5 mil. $
Box office: 10.7 mil. $ (North America only)
= Uncertain but likely a big flop (returned 0.85 times its cost domestically)
[Glengarry Glen Ross premiered 30 August (Edinburgh International Film Festival) and runs 100 minutes. Mamet was paid 1 mil. $ for the rights to, as well as adapting his play. The stars took reduced salaries to get the film made: Pacino 1.5 mil. $, Lemmon 1 mil. $, Alec Baldwin 250k $. Shooting took place for 39 days from August - October 1991 in New York. The stars reportedly showed up also on days they did not have scenes, to watch their colleagues' performances. The producers sued each other during production. The film opened #8 to a 2.1 mil. $ first weekend in 416 theaters in North America, where it diminished from there and grossed 10.7 mil. $. Regrettably the international numbers are not reported. If the film ended up with a realistic 15 mil. $ gross, it would rank as big flop. It was nominated for 1 Oscar; Best Supporting Actor (Pacino), lost to Gene Hackman in Unforgiven. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe, won 2 National Board of Review awards and 2 prizes at the Venice Film Festival, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Foley returned with Two Bits (1995). Pacino returned in Scent of a Woman (1992); Lemmon in The Wild West (1993, miniseries) and theatrically in Short Cuts (1993). Glengarry Glen Ross is certified fresh at 95 minutes with a 8.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Glengarry Glen Ross?
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