| The Deal | |
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| Directed by | Steven Schachter |
| Produced by | Irene Litinsky Keri Nakamoto Michael Prupas |
| Written by | William H. Macy Steven Schachter Based on the novel by Peter Lefcourt |
| Starring | William H. Macy Meg Ryan Jason Ritter with Elliott Gould and LL Cool J |
| Music by | Jeff Beal |
| Cinematography | Paul Sarossy |
| Editing by | Matt Friedman Susan Maggi |
| Studio | Muse Entertainment Enterprises |
| Distributed by | Peace Arch Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | January 20, 2009 (DVD) |
| Running time | 100 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Deal is a 2008 American satirical comedy film directed by Steven Schachter. The screenplay by Schachter and William H. Macy is based on the 1991 novel of the same title by Peter Lefcourt. Macy and Meg Ryan co-star.
The film was shot in Cape Town and other South African locations. It premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and was the opening night attraction at the Sarasota Film Festival.[1] It also was shown at the Philadelphia Film Festival, the Maui Film Festival, and the Traverse City Film Festival, among others, but never was given a theatrical release in the United States. It was released on Region 1 DVD on January 20, 2009.
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The story focuses on struggling Hollywood film producer Charlie Berns, who is on the verge of suicide when his aspiring screenwriter nephew Lionel arrives from New Jersey with a script about 19th century British statesman Benjamin Disraeli. Charlie agrees to make the film, but he converts the literate PBS-style script into the action adventure Middle Eastern espionage film Ben Disraeli: Freedom Fighter. He casts African American Bobby Mason, a recent convert to Judaism, in the title role and proceeds to set up locations in South Africa. When Bobby is kidnapped during filming, Charlie devises a way to keep his project going. He moves his crew to Prague and begins to film Lionel's original script without advising studio heads of his plan.
In his review in Variety, Peter Debruge said, "The characters seem to be doing all the laughing, while the general public has nothing to cling to but the horndog flirtation between mismatched leads William H. Macy and Meg Ryan - hardly ideal ingredients for mainstream success . . . Elliott Gould gets laughs as the credit-hungry rabbi pulled in to consult on the film, although a few A-list celebrity cameos in the movie-star roles would have gone a long way toward completing the illusion."[2]
Although Matt Prigge of the Philadelphia Weekly felt there was "nothing remotely original" about the film, he thought it "just happens to be sprightlier than most, zipping along from one familiar but well-deployed yuk to the next and anchored by the surprisingly winning team of Macy and Meg Ryan."[3]
Michael Atkinson of the Boston Phoenix called the film a "bouncy, sharp-edged farce . . . [whose] target audience is, to some degree, its own cast and crew. Yet it’s difficult to resist when the purely idiotic is openly mocked by a sure-footed cast of line readers led by William H. Macy . . . Meg Ryan gets a somewhat thankless role . . . but the dialogue is fast, and of course the target is a fat, awful, patronizing goldfish in a small bowl begging to be shot."[4]