But our failure to buy William H. Macy as a real bastard is far from The Deal's only problem. As I mentioned before, it fancies itself a Hollywood satire, and the premise is rife with opportunity. Not only is Bobby Mason a rap star action hero, he's also a rap star action hero who has recently converted to Judaism. He brings a mobile temple with him to the set, passes out yarmulkes emblazoned with "Bobby Disraeli: Freedom Fighter," and has his rabbi (Elliott Gould) made executive producer. This is all funny material, but the movie does nothing with it. The gags are amusing, but instead of playing up the absurdities, the movie supplies the punchlines and moves along. Elliott Gould, one of the best character actors in the world, is wasted. Macy must be a close friend of his.
It took forty-seven minutes for the movie to get a genuine laugh out of me (yes, I actually stopped to check), and it still makes me smile: Fiona Hicks (Fiona Glascott), heroine of the movie-within-the-movie, looks good with her shirt off but can't throw a grenade without looking like a fussy little girl. This, as the movie shows it, is not very funny. But the solution, which I will not reveal lest I spoil one of the movie's few good jokes, is hilarious. If the entire movie had this same kind of build-up and payoff, this would've been a good little industry jab.
But it doesn't, and it's not, and is also unwise enough to try to be a romantic comedy at the same time. Meg Ryan, who for a brief time was something of a romcom queen with hits like When Harry Met Sally... and Sleepless in Seattle, hasn't had much luck in the 21st century. She's been in bad film after bad film, and the only thing that keeps her afloat here is the same irrepressible charm she brings to every role. I don't necessarily take issue with the fact that The Deal wants to be a romance, but when the last half-hour of the movie has such a cute thing going between her and Macy, the filmmakers should've realized that this, and not the showbiz spoof, was the movie they wanted to make.
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