A Chicago real estate office has fallen on hard times, and corporate HQ sends in a champion salesman to give the crew a shakedown. Blake (Baldwin) gives a browbeating sales talk, with the clincher a contest that has as first prize a Cadillac Eldorado. Second prize is a set of steak knives, and third prize (which most of the guys will "win") is to be laid off. There's no room for losers, and only "closers" will survive and get the good sales leads. Pacino is Ricky Roma, the cocky young hotshot of the outfit who can almost nail a prospect in a bar (Pryce plays the skittish client); Harris is an arrogant, resentful also-ran; Alan Arkin is another washout, and Spacey's a young, inexperienced sales manager overwhelmed by the guys he has to manage. But the center of the story is Shelley Levene (Lemmon), an old vet getting very long in the tooth, worried about his daughter dying in the hospital, and almost reeking of desperation. The weaker men's only salvation may be a stash of leads -- the names of hot prospective clients -- stored in the office safe, and when a robbery occurs, every man's life teeters on the brink of possible disaster. Loud, profane (there are an estimated 138 repetitions of the F-word and its derivatives, as well as 50 uses of sh-t), and stunningly well acted by its ensemble cast, this is an underrated and underappreciated jewel written by David Mamet after his stage play, hard and cold though it may be.
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The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus
In a struggling Chicago real estate office, times are getting tough, so a new sales contest is announced. The bottom half of their four-man work force will be fired at the end of the month. This will be especially hard on Shelly Levine, an aging salesman with a daughter in the hospital and no prospects for a new job. Plans are hatched to rob the office and steal the "leads", pieces of paper with names of prospective clients, and when the robbery actually happens, the police are called in to catch the culprits.
The review of this Movie prepared by Ari Rosner