Sometimes, an effective thriller can be constructed from the professional world's most mundane elements. Throw in a few plot twists, and the dry jargon of the political, legal, and financial realms can take on a life of their own: John Grisham and countless others have built their careers on that device. On the other hand, sometimes no amount of dressing can disguise a worn-out plot and stock characters. For instance, there's The Deal, a big-budget thriller shoved into an indie-sized film by screenwriter Ruth Epstein and director Harvey Kahn. Between them, Epstein and Kahn have years of experience in the fields of corporate finance and political journalism. They've poured a lot of that experience into their film. They've also poured in a lot of elements from low-budget, late-night cable movies, like parking-garage assassinations and heart-shaped candy boxes filled with bloody hearts. They seem to hope that if they stir enough, it'll all mix together. It doesn't.
Miscasting doesn't help. Executive producer Christian Slater steps into the lead as an honest investment banker trying to find his moral center after a few rough years. In a film filled with duplicity, casting Slater as the straight guy makes about as much sense of giving Clint Eastwood a part as a librarian. The thrust of the film concerns his investigation into a big deal that will bring in Russian oil at a time when the United States' war with the Confederation Of Arab States has constricted the flow of fossil fuels. (The film is set in a not-so-distant future in which gas costs $6 a gallon and New York looks a lot like Vancouver).
Selma Blair, a sharp actress lost in an underwritten part, co-stars as a crusading young Harvard graduate who reluctantly takes a Wall Street job in the hopes of doing good from within the system. She mostly just ends up doing Slater; the film lets this cruel irony pass without comment. Eventually, tension mounts, bad guy Robert Loggia chews some scenery, Colm Feore glowers menacingly, Angie Harmon starts talking in a Russian accent, doors get busted open, and shots get fired. With its boardroom machinations and references to Middle Eastern politics, The Deal gets points for contemporary relevance. If Epstein and Kahn's plot mechanics were as fresh as the headlines from which they borrow, they might have been on to something.