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The Deal (2008 film)
Encyclopedia
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 Africa
n locations. It premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival
and was the opening night attraction at the Sarasota Film Festival
. 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.
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 East
ern 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.
, 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."
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."
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."
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
directed by Steven Schachter
Steven Schachter
Steven Schachter is an American television, theatre, and film director and screenwriter.Much of Schachter's success stems from projects on which he has collaborated with William H. Macy...
. The screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
by Schachter and William H. Macy
William H. Macy
William Hall Macy, Jr. is an American actor and writer. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Jerry Lundegaard in Fargo. He is also a teacher and director in theater, film and television. His film career has been built mostly on his appearances in small, independent films, though...
is based on the 1991 novel of the same title by Peter Lefcourt
Peter Lefcourt
Peter Lefcourt is an American television producer, a film and television screenwriter, and a novelist.Lefcourt's early career involved writing teleplays for primetime series such as Cagney and Lacey, Scarecrow and Mrs. King , Eight is Enough, and Remington Steele, among others...
. Macy and Meg Ryan
Meg Ryan
Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra , professionally known as Meg Ryan, is an American actress and producer. Raised in Bethel, Connecticut, Ryan began her acting career in 1981 in minor roles, before joining the cast of the CBS soap opera As the World Turns in 1982...
co-star.
The film was shot in Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
and other South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n locations. It premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival
2008 Sundance Film Festival
The 2008 Sundance Film Festival ran from January 17, 2008 to January 27 in Park City, Utah. It was the 24th iteration of the Sundance Film Festival. The opening night film was In Bruges and the closing night film was CSNY Déjà Vu.-Films:...
and was the opening night attraction at the Sarasota Film Festival
Sarasota Film Festival
The Sarasota Film Festival has been held annually since 1999 in Sarasota, Florida. The festival is held in April and has become one of the top ten independent festivals in North America...
. It also was shown at the Philadelphia Film Festival
Philadelphia Film Festival
The Philadelphia Film Festival is held annually in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Until 2009 it was generally held during the first weeks of April....
, the Maui Film Festival
Hawaii International Film Festival
The Hawaii International Film Festival is a film festival held in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It was started in 1981 by Jeannette Paulson Hereniko and has been held annually in the fall for two weeks...
, and the Traverse City Film Festival
Traverse City Film Festival
The Traverse City Film Festival is an annual film festival held every late July through early August in Traverse City, Michigan. The festival was created as an annual event in 2005 to help “save one of America's few indigenous art forms—the cinema." The event was co-founded by Michael Moore, the...
, among others, but never was given a theatrical release in the United States. It was released on Region 1 DVD on January 20, 2009.
Plot
The story focuses on struggling Hollywood film producerFilm producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
Charlie Berns, who is on the verge of suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
when his aspiring screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
nephew Lionel arrives from New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
with a script about 19th century British statesman Benjamin Disraeli. Charlie agrees to make the film, but he converts the literate PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
-style script into the action adventure
Action film
Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...
Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
ern espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
film Ben Disraeli: Freedom Fighter. He casts African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
Bobby Mason, a recent convert to Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
, 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
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
and begins to film Lionel's original script without advising studio heads of his plan.
Cast
- William H. MacyWilliam H. MacyWilliam Hall Macy, Jr. is an American actor and writer. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Jerry Lundegaard in Fargo. He is also a teacher and director in theater, film and television. His film career has been built mostly on his appearances in small, independent films, though...
as Charlie Berns - Meg RyanMeg RyanMargaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra , professionally known as Meg Ryan, is an American actress and producer. Raised in Bethel, Connecticut, Ryan began her acting career in 1981 in minor roles, before joining the cast of the CBS soap opera As the World Turns in 1982...
as Deidre Hearn - LL Cool JLL Cool JJames Todd Smith , better known as LL Cool J , is an American rapper, entrepreneur, and actor...
as Bobby Mason - Elliott GouldElliott GouldElliott Gould is an American actor. He began acting in Hollywood films during the 1960s, and has remained prolific ever since. Some of his most notable films include M*A*S*H and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, for which he received an Oscar nomination...
as Rabbi Seth Gutterman - Jason RitterJason RitterJason Morgan Ritter is an American actor, son of the late actor John Ritter and actress Nancy Morgan. Ritter is probably best known for his role as Kevin Girardi in the television series Joan of Arcadia and as Sean Walker in the NBC series The Event.-Early life:Ritter was born in Los Angeles,...
as Lionel Travitz - Fiona GlascottFiona GlascottFiona Glascott is an Irish actress. She was nominated for an Irish Film and Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in Film/TV for 2003's Goldfish Memory....
as Fiona Hicks
Critical reception
In his review in VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
, 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
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
pulled in to consult on the film, although a few A-list
A-list
A-list is a term that alludes to major movie stars, or the most bankable in the Hollywood film industry.The A-list is part of a larger guide called The Hot List that has become an industry-standard guide in Hollywood...
celebrity cameos
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
in the movie-star roles would have gone a long way toward completing the illusion."
Although Matt Prigge of the Philadelphia Weekly
Philadelphia Weekly
Philadelphia Weekly , is an award-winning alternative newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, published every Wednesday.The paper was founded in 1971 as a sister publication to the South Philadelphia Press. In 1995, the paper became 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."
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."