Pocket Listing

A redemption story about a scummy real estate agent who falls from grace, becomes a slumlord, and then gets a comeback shot at the mother of dirty deals. Good story and excellent acting

Good film with a great cast, occasionally good dialogue, and some great one-liners. The story itself felt a tad bit lightweught for me, but it's still a fun time.

I can't decide who I have a bigger crush on... Jessica Clark, James Jurdi, or Rob Lowe. Hmmm... I'll take all three. Movie was fun too.

Not in recent memory has there been a film which deals with the intricacies of the real estate world, let alone one which features an actual real estate agent as the hero of the film. "I don't just sell houses, I deal dreams" remarks Jack Woodman (played by James Jurdi), a super hot, ultra slick shark in a suit who happens to be L.A.'s top realtor. This guy, or maybe Jurdi's engaging performance, actually made me want to consider studying up on real estate.

Woodman's rise, fall, and ultimate redemption make up the bulk of the story, along with the crazy deal at the heart of the film which amplify the intrigue/mayhem. Satire in the vein of "The Player" and "Get Shorty" add to the mix, producing a film which flies fast, digs deep infrequently, but whose ultimate purpose is to entertain, and oh yeah, to make us all wish we were super cool Beverly Hills real estate agents who find themselves in situations with femme fetale bombshells, Russian mafiosos, Mexican gangsters, and Rob Lowe as a rock star-styled villa owner with a dark side. Are we having fun yet? You will. That's the point.

This is a fun and relatively clever little film, far from perfect and a bit slow to get going but generally enjoyable overall.

What's interesting about it is that it is set in the backdrop of the American real estate crises but somehow it doesn't dwell on the drama of that dilemma. Rather, it spins an energetic crime caper about a Malibu villa and all the players that are trying to sell it for their own very shady reasons. As long as the film stays with this threadline, it works. When it tries to become a bit message oriented with a subplot about a Downtown tenement that's tied to the sale of the house and to the main real estate agent, it loses momentum and becomes less zesty.

Fortunately, it maintains enough energy to keep the audience engaged and one most give credit to the younger actors in the film for really carrying it nicely. Lowe and Reynolds have smaller parts but it's really the fresh faced ingenues that make this film pop. Overall, "Pocket Listing" is certainly ambitious, somewhat flawed but undeniably compelling.