Co-written by William H. Macy and Steven Schachter, this movie named "The Deal" was directed by Schacher and starred Macy as Charlie Berns, Meg Ryan as Deidre Hearn, and Jason Ritter as Lionel Travitz. It's a laugh-out-loud funny movie, but it has a few minor faults.
The gist of the movie is that Charlie is a has-been producer who has hit the end of the line. His nephew Lionel stumbles in with a script. Charlie, having nothing to lose, pitches it to a studio as a vehicle for a black action star who has recently converted to Judaism and is looking for a property to promote his new Jewish ideals. The only problem is that the script is about Benjamin Disraeli, an 1800s English prime minister. (Disraeli was born into a Jewish family, but his father had him baptized as an Anglican when Disraeli was twelve.)
Spoilers ahead. Here is one of my problems. Although Charlie is pitched by the script as a total loser, he out-maneuvers everyone with aplomb and total lack of effort and gets the film green lighted. He then finesses and finagles every problem thrown at him by Diedre, who loves the original script and detests the rewrite as an action film with Disraeli as a black action hero machinegunning Muslims to save a Torah and the girl. The process in "The Deal" is hilarious, I just had to suspend a wee bit too much disbelief.
The script is based on Peter Lefcourt's novel of the same name, and a great deal of the film is spent skewering Hollywood types. Charlie sloughs off all responsibility, dumping all decisions on others in his relentless drive to get the film in the can. Roadblock after roadblock from self-promoting producers, legal, development, prima donna directors, prima donna actors, and studio heads are overcome or by-passed with a casual toss of the hand by Charlie. It was funny, very funny, but just not quite believable to me.
The other problem is that the screenplay bolts a romantic comedy onto the darker comedy about Hollywood types. Meg Ryan's Diedre is in development, and she wants the original script produced. She attempts to hijack the movie, sabotage it, and get it back on track, in the process falling in love with Charlie. My major problem is that Charlie, shown as an unkempt, total loser with no class never really cleans up even when he's winning. In "Pretty Woman," Julia Roberts plays a street walker, for pete's sake, not even a call girl, but when Richard Gere gets her out of her slutty costume, she gets class.
Charlie, alas, remains unclassy throughout. I guess my major complaint is that while Meg Ryan can do a respectable Myrna Loy, William H. Macy is no William Powell. Ever. Nothing in the script makes him bloom into a character worth Diedre's time. Macy has a winning smile, and the script has him playing it for all it's worth, but he's not my ideal romantic lead opposite Meg Ryan. The parts of the script where Charlie and Diedre bantered back and forth didn't sparkle for me.
The movie hit the indie film contests and went straight to video. I enjoyed the movie a great deal despite its flaws, and I recommend it.
I read the novel after I saw the movie. I recommend this because most books have depth and character missing from movies, but it's not necessary for Lefcourt's book. The book and movie are different enough to keep your interest, but there's no character development and no depth -- like the movie, not a problem. It's a funny book, but I suspect I missed a lot of inside humor since I don't know the goings on in Hollywood. The book was published in 1991, and it's dated because of references to the top stars of 20 years ago, but most people will catch the drift. Additionally, the relationship between Diedre and Charlie is more fully developed, has a satisfactory explanation, and suffers no attempts at romantic banter. With no description of Charlie offered by Lefcourt, he's left to my own imagination.
One other plus for the book: I got a lot more out of the names for Lefcourt's characters. Emprin, Hudris, Fuchs, Ikon, Bland, Auger, and more I'm sure that went right over my head. It got off to a very slow start, but it soon had me turning pages with time going by unnoticed.
The gist of the movie is that Charlie is a has-been producer who has hit the end of the line. His nephew Lionel stumbles in with a script. Charlie, having nothing to lose, pitches it to a studio as a vehicle for a black action star who has recently converted to Judaism and is looking for a property to promote his new Jewish ideals. The only problem is that the script is about Benjamin Disraeli, an 1800s English prime minister. (Disraeli was born into a Jewish family, but his father had him baptized as an Anglican when Disraeli was twelve.)
Spoilers ahead. Here is one of my problems. Although Charlie is pitched by the script as a total loser, he out-maneuvers everyone with aplomb and total lack of effort and gets the film green lighted. He then finesses and finagles every problem thrown at him by Diedre, who loves the original script and detests the rewrite as an action film with Disraeli as a black action hero machinegunning Muslims to save a Torah and the girl. The process in "The Deal" is hilarious, I just had to suspend a wee bit too much disbelief.
The script is based on Peter Lefcourt's novel of the same name, and a great deal of the film is spent skewering Hollywood types. Charlie sloughs off all responsibility, dumping all decisions on others in his relentless drive to get the film in the can. Roadblock after roadblock from self-promoting producers, legal, development, prima donna directors, prima donna actors, and studio heads are overcome or by-passed with a casual toss of the hand by Charlie. It was funny, very funny, but just not quite believable to me.
The other problem is that the screenplay bolts a romantic comedy onto the darker comedy about Hollywood types. Meg Ryan's Diedre is in development, and she wants the original script produced. She attempts to hijack the movie, sabotage it, and get it back on track, in the process falling in love with Charlie. My major problem is that Charlie, shown as an unkempt, total loser with no class never really cleans up even when he's winning. In "Pretty Woman," Julia Roberts plays a street walker, for pete's sake, not even a call girl, but when Richard Gere gets her out of her slutty costume, she gets class.
Charlie, alas, remains unclassy throughout. I guess my major complaint is that while Meg Ryan can do a respectable Myrna Loy, William H. Macy is no William Powell. Ever. Nothing in the script makes him bloom into a character worth Diedre's time. Macy has a winning smile, and the script has him playing it for all it's worth, but he's not my ideal romantic lead opposite Meg Ryan. The parts of the script where Charlie and Diedre bantered back and forth didn't sparkle for me.
The movie hit the indie film contests and went straight to video. I enjoyed the movie a great deal despite its flaws, and I recommend it.
I read the novel after I saw the movie. I recommend this because most books have depth and character missing from movies, but it's not necessary for Lefcourt's book. The book and movie are different enough to keep your interest, but there's no character development and no depth -- like the movie, not a problem. It's a funny book, but I suspect I missed a lot of inside humor since I don't know the goings on in Hollywood. The book was published in 1991, and it's dated because of references to the top stars of 20 years ago, but most people will catch the drift. Additionally, the relationship between Diedre and Charlie is more fully developed, has a satisfactory explanation, and suffers no attempts at romantic banter. With no description of Charlie offered by Lefcourt, he's left to my own imagination.
One other plus for the book: I got a lot more out of the names for Lefcourt's characters. Emprin, Hudris, Fuchs, Ikon, Bland, Auger, and more I'm sure that went right over my head. It got off to a very slow start, but it soon had me turning pages with time going by unnoticed.