Although films about Hollywood, and movies about making movies, are always a difficult sell, "The Deal" with Meg Ryan and William Macy is better than most, and in fact is a fairly cute and entertaining Meg Ryan movie.
The film received poor reviews, and went straight to video. But it's surprisingly funny and well done. However, the problem that films in this genre always have is that they are, ultimately, about either the tragedy or the comedy, or both, of pimping and whoring.
People in the movie business, and some movie enthusiasts in the know, find this kind of backstage story great fun. But the audience doesn't seem to care for the implication that they are dolts and marks being gamed by various users and predators in the Hollywood system, who may just coincidentally have made films that the audience loves. In any case, it's worth a view, even if you have to deal with Meg's post surgery face -- she's so cute, can't she just be cute and older, instead of botoxed, lifted, implanted, stretched and embalmed. Evidently not...
