Review of Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) by Bill W — 15 Mar 2010

This could be the best acting that I've ever seen. Period. You can practically taste the aggressive desperation. The scenes in particular involving Al Pacino and Jonathan Pryce (evoking an only somewhat subtle homoerotic undercurrent), or Jack Lemmon and anybody else, have to be seen to be believed.

Their virtuosity with Mamet's crack dialogue approximates a verbal dance; they are salesmen on their last dimes struggling to close that elusive deal--and to get their hands on the even more elusive Glengarry leads.

Is the downturn the fault of the salesmen, the company, the bad leads, or the cruelty of fate? It doesn't matter; it just sucks, and that rock-bottom tumble into despair from the heights of you-thought-you-were-slick-dom is captured perfectly here.