Le deal

Saw it last night (April 5th) at Philly Film Festival. Mr. Macy, Jason Ritter and Fiona Glascott were all present and were gracious to the max.

This film was clearly a labor of love and had a very difficult "birthing". But it never connected with me in any significant way (especially the "quasi-insider making of a movie" road it took us down).

Macy as ALWAYS is magnificent. Meg Ryan is...well Meg Ryan and that is NOT all things bad. I think Jason Ritter has a great future in the business (and did fine work in the late and very lamented TV Show Joan of Arcadia too).

But I thought the plot as far as I could discern it was both muddled and totally unbelievable. I know it made sense to folks more in tune with things that could go right/wrong/changes of direction in getting a film greenlighted and made.But I'm far from an insider so the references were quite lost on me for the most part.

To me it doesn't quite make it as satire (or I didn't get it) and not funny enough to be a sustained comedy.

But I truly hope it is just me and this film gets an audience and makes $$ for those (especially Mr. Macy) who put their heart, soul and funds into its making.

Before watching The Deal I read some positive reviews from over excited people, thought I was going to be in for a treat, certainly with William H. Macy and Meg Ryan in the cast, two actors that I appreciate, but in the end it was just disappointing. The acting was good though, but the story is just a bit boring. And it's not the couple comedy scenes that were going to save this picture. I wished I liked it more but I didn't, I was actually glad when I saw the end credits appear, felt like a three hour movie instead of half that time.

I discovered this movie by accident today. Just scrolling through suggestions on Prime, and there it was. And I thought Oh! A Meg Ryan film I'm not familiar with?! And William H. Macy too! Now, the fact that I've never heard of it did give me pause, but I thought it was worth a shot with the two of them in the leads. I barely (and I do mean BARELY) made it through the first half hour. It's just so SOOOOOOO bad. So boring. I have much better things to do than sit through drivel like this. - And so do you!

This could have been good if it were actually funny. Humor is obviously subjective, but based on the 6.1 rating on here, most viewers did not subjectively find this film funny either.

There is not remotely a believable, moving, or memorable moment to save this unfunny "comedy." Macy usually provides some human warmth to his characters, but even he could not save this terrible script. Macy's relationship with Ryan is not touching, and the two have no chemistry whatsoever.

Also, Meg Ryan, who was never good looking to begin with, now looks like a freak: gross!

Grade: F

Just saw the film tonight at the 25th annual Jerusalem Film Festival, screened in the "Jewish Experience" category. This is of course not surprising since the film is hugely fun, mixing Judaism/Israeli aspects into a wonderful satire of Hollywood filmdom. Don't take this film too seriously, although the acting is wonderful, with everyone clearly knowing it's all in fun. Despite that, I really got into the 'vibe' of the story, waiting to see whether they'd manage to finish making the film - whichever one it'll be. The whole Jewish angle of the film is of course especially fun for us here in Israel, and even more so because Israeli actor Sharon Reginiano plays Levy the director and inserts all sorts of comments in Hebrew which may be lost to non-Hebrew speakers, even if they are translated. The film reminded me very much of "The Hebrew Hammer" (2003) with Adam Goldberg which I saw at the JFF of that year. Both films use the Jewish/Israeli/Hebrew slants to the max and are extremely tongue-in-cheek, satirizing their respective genres. Don't over-analyze or dissect this film - just see it for what it is, a fun satire of Hollywood movie-making and all it involves. Don't know if this'll catch on in the overall US/worldwide markets, but we here sure enjoyed it. And if it does go straight to DVD, no matter - just enjoy it that way!