New York based Sam Harper – a “salesman” who works for Allied Barter Trade, which deals solely in bartering overstocked goods and as such does not pay corporate taxes with no money trading hands – does whatever he can, besides coming right out and saying so, that he does not want to attend his father’s funeral in Los Angeles.
The reason is that he didn’t much like his father, Jerry Harper, a music business executive, who he felt treated him distantly his entire life. By association, he has a strained relationship with his mother, Lillian Harper, for purposefully staying out of her and Jerry’s lives, she more being collateral damage in Jerry and Sam’s estrangement.
Regardless, Sam’s supportive girlfriend, Hannah, is able to get him onto a plane to Los Angeles. Sam learns from Ike Rafferty, the family’s lawyer, that Jerry has a post-mortem task for him: to deliver a shaving kit to Josh Davis, the kit filled with $150,000 cash. Sam further learns that eleven year old Josh, a smart-aleck of a boy prone to acting out, is the son of single working mom and recovering alcoholic Frankie Davis, the half sister (i.e. Jerry’s illegitimate daughter) he never knew he had, and that Frankie knew of Jerry being her father, who dropped out of her life when she was only a child.
With all this knowledge at hand, Jerry contemplates if he will hand the money over to Frankie and Josh, especially as he is facing not only money but legal issues back in New York stemming from a barter situation gone bad, let alone if he will introduce himself to her as her half brother. Sam does decide to speak and ultimately get to know Frankie, which may further factor into what he decides to do, he knowing that the longer he waits to tell her truth, the harder it will be both for him and for her.
People Like Us (known during production as Welcome to People) is a 2012 American drama film directed by Alex Kurtzman in his directorial debut. The film was written by Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Jody Lambert, and stars Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks, Olivia Wilde, Michael Hall D’Addario and Michelle Pfeiffer. A. R. Rahman composed the soundtrack. The film was released by Touchstone Pictures on June 29, 2012.
Film Review for People Like Us
“People Like Us,” a good-hearted and well-intentioned film, depends on a movie device we could name The 90-Minute Delay. That describes the technique of waiting through most of a movie for one simple line to be spoken that would clear up all of the confusion. In this case, that line would be, “We are brother and sister.” There might be a good reason for not wanting to tell someone that, but not in this story, where it serves mostly to string us along.
The siblings in question are the children of a famous Los Angeles record producer, who spent his career masterminding the albums of rock legends and found time to start a second family on the side. Now we meet his son Sam (Chris Pine), a slick-talking New York salesman who gets the news that his father has died. He sets off for the airport with his girlfriend, Hannah (Olivia Wilde), but is so reluctant to attend the funeral, he tries to manage for them to miss their flight.
No luck. Apparently the old man was a distant father, wrapped up in his own legend. When Sam arrives belatedly at home, his mother, Lillian (Michelle Pfeiffer), gives him a good slap and then says she’s happy to have him there. He enters at last a room in their house that was his father’s man cave, a repository of his tapes, albums, souvenirs and archives. It’s unclear how much money the old man left, but Sam’s legacy seems to be a shaving kit with $150,000 inside — and information about its recipient.
That would be Frankie (Elizabeth Banks), his half-sister. In a reasonable world, he might implore his father’s trusted attorney, Ike Rafferty (Philip Baker Hall), to perform this mission, or at least accompany him on it. Sam prefers a stealth approach, “happens” to meet her at an AA meeting and learns she has a young son, Josh (Michael Hall D’Addario). He begins to befriend them, grows close to the son and behaves in a way that, in another movie, might seem alarming. Not here. His help is welcomed, although Frankie grows curious.
As Hannah returns home and Sam settles in for an indefinite stay, he is tempted to keep the cash for himself; he’s deeply in debt because of a boxcar-load of exploding juice boxes. But never mind. He and Frankie begin to share confidences, an unmistakable affection grows between them, and all this time, Sam keeps the crucial secret.
A truth untold can interest me up to a certain point, and then it grows tiresome. Alex Kurtzman, who directed and co-wrote this film, says it is loosely based on a true story, his own. I don’t suppose it’s a close parallel, but for the sake of discussion, at which point does Sam’s keeping the secret qualify as a sadistic manipulation of his sister? If the old man was cool and distant, has the fruit fallen far from the tree?
“People Like Us” paints engaging portraits of its characters, who feel close enough to plausible people — so close that the delayed secret undermines them. Characters cannot linger in ignorance indefinitely without suffering. I like smart movies about smart people, and enjoy it when most of the facts are on the table and we can contemplate them together.
Sam and Frankie are certainly interesting enough that a film about them coming to grips with this hidden truth would have been justified. It also would probably have been harder to write than this one, so “People Like Us” marches on with a coy little smile, toying with Frankie and the audience.
People Like Us (2012)
Directed by: Alex Kurtzman
Starring: Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks, Michelle Pfeiffer, Michael Hall D’Addario, Olivia Wilde, Mark Duplass, Sara Mornell, Philip Baker Hall, Barbara Eve Harris, Gabriela Milla
Screenplay by: Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci
Production Design by: Ida Random
Cinematography by: Salvatore Totino
Film Editing by: Robert Leighton
Costume Design by: Mary Zophres
Set Decoration by: Douglas A. Mowat
Art Direction by: James E. Tocci
Music by: A.R. Rahman
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for language, some drug use and brief sexuality.
Distributed by: DreamWorks Pictures, Walt Disney Pictures
Release Date: June 29, 2012
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