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Strong and Moving!

Nice effects though.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The worlds of investing banking and Wall Street come together in this tale of high finances, and acquisitions of an important source of oil, that, might, or might not, be the real thing. When more pressure is put in being able to get cheap oil and make enormous amounts of money because of the high market prices, makes the right ingredients for all kinds of conspiracies theories.Tom Hanson, a man working for a financial institution is called to give his verdict on what an 'oily' old executive, Jared Tolson, wants to do in order to merge with a private Russian concern that controls reserves that hold a lot of promise. We realize from the start the deal needs to be investigated because it sounds too good. Someone is going to make a killing, for sure! The intrigue surrounding the prospective deal is confusing, at best. The unsuspecting viewer is assaulted with a lot of financial terms that will probably go above his head. The screenplay by Ruth Epstein is too heavy with twists and turns that add to addle anyone. In a way, we couldn't help thinking about the Enron debacle, as we watched this film, directed by Harvey Kahn.Christian Slater plays Tom Hanson, the expert that is the key figure in the deal that is being put together. Selma Blair is the smart young woman that Tom hires to delve into the background of the possible merge. Robert Loggia, never having looked as sly and fierce, is Jared Tolson. An excellent Colm Feore is about the best thing in the film.The higher places of finance in Boston, Vancouver and New York are photographed in glossy detail by Adam Sliwinski. Christopher Lennertz is the man responsible for providing the interesting music score.

This political thriller about illegal oil trading, the Russian mafia, and government conspiracy is well done, and deserves a much better rating and credit than people give it. It is not amazing by any means, but its solidy acted, written well, reaches some very important moral and political ideas without being completely illogical and unrealistic (of course its not real, but it very well could be). Slater was good as tom hanson and i liked Robert Loggia in the supporting role as Jared TOlson, the film has good cinematography from Adam Sliwinski and editing by Richard Schwadel. Overall good effort from harvey Kahn, better than a lot of high budget films, amazing how this film probably cost a couple million to make max (perhaps 5-10 mil after slater gets his cash)...--- IMDb rating: 5.1, my rating: 8/10

The storyline of "The Deal" has a good premise – the USA officially in war against the Arabs exclusively because of the oil and without any subterfuge. An American Oil Corporation requests the support of a credible Wall Street company to support a merging with a Russian Oil Company and get the supply of the necessary oil. An ambitious executive from Harvard is in charge of the deal and pressed by the Russians, the board of his company and his love for a colleague.Unfortunately, the very confused screenplay is simply awful. It is almost impossible to understand the beginning of the story so confused it is. Later, the plot is disclosed and finally the viewer can understand the situation, with lots of betrayals and jealousy. There are three favorable reviews of this movie, and two of them are written by users with only one review issued in IMDb apparently to make a fake promotion of this film. My vote is four.Title (Brazil): "Contrato de Risco" ("Risk Contract")

THE DEAL was made when the idea of paying $6 per gallon of gas would spark international intrigue: now that we're well over $3.35 per gallon that price seems less than shocking! The concept of showing how big business and the government cover up the absurd under the table Deals such as the one that is the focus of this meager script is now so de rigueur that there is no melodrama or intrigue to this story. One must credit writer Ruth Epstein, director Harvey Kahn, and executive producer/star Christian Slater for caring enough about the chaos oil supplies and their impact on the world at large are causing, but the sad truth is that this tale is so ho-hum in that we all read this very story in the newspaper everyday that it hardly seems to merit a movie.The cast is sterling - Christian Slater as a Wall Street type, Robert Loggia as the dirty hands dealer type, Selma Blair as the idealist, and Colm Feore, John Heard, Kevin Tighe, etc all try their best to make this flabby script meaningful. The star of the movie is the musical scoring by Christopher Lennertz...and that says a lot. Without an arc of plot line and without a bit of new information about the corruption at the highest levels of this country, this film just doesn't get off the ground. Grady Harp