The Deal

Rotten Tomatoes

Movie Info

Money and power bring major corruption to the world's energy marketplace in this taut political drama. After a long war between the United States and a coalition of Middle Eastern nations leads to a gap in the flow of multinational oil trading, the price of gasoline in America shoots past six dollars a gallon and both the energy industry and the stock market are walking on thin ice. In the midst of this instability, Tom Hansen (Christian Slater), a leading advisor at of one Wall Street's topfirms, is looking to hire new talent to help with his latest client, Condor Oil and Gas. Condor's CEO, Jared Tolson (Robert Loggia) used to employ Tom's best friend until the younger man died in a mysterious accident, and Tom is eager to do what he can for Jared. Tom hires Abbey Gallagher (Selma Blair) to assist with the Condor account; Abbey is a passionate environmental activist who is wary of associating herself with a major energy firm, but her mentor Prof. Roseman (John Heard) persuades her she can be an advocate for green concerns on the inside. As Tom and Abbey spend more time together, they become romantically drawn to one another, but Tom's love for her puts Abbey in great danger when she finds out what he knows about illegal oil trading operations and money laundering schemes that link Condor with the Russian Mafia. The Deal also stars Colm Feore, Angie Harmon, and Françoise Yip

From Wikapedia

A political thriller steeped in illegal oil trading, the Russian Mafia, and governmental cover-ups.

Christian Slater, Selma Blair, Angie Harmon and Robert Loggia star in a gripping tale of assassination, deception and corruption set in the high-stakes world of corporate investment and international oil trading. With America at war and in the grip of a crippling fuel crisis, Wall Street analyst Tom Hanson (Slater) agrees to broker a lucrative deal between a Russian oil cartel and his investment firm's biggest client, led by cold-blooded CEO Jared Tolson (Loggia). While juggling his growing attraction to newly hired associate, Abby Gallagher (Blair) a Harvard graduate who wants to save the world and has an innovative idea for helping those seeking alternative energy sources further their research. The snake pit of Wall Street is the last place she wants to be, but Gordon convinces her that his company can make her alternative energy dream a reality (because the company can make money by doing so). Tom learns all is not what it seems with the deal. Digging deeper, he and Abby soon find themselves trapped in a dangerous web of treachery and murder that will keep you guessing until the very end.

TVGuide Review
Wall Street veteran Ruth Epstein spent seven years developing her screenplay for this startlingly timely thriller about the geopolitics of oil production. Set in the near future, the film posits a war between the U.S. and the fictitious Confederacy of Arab States that has slowed oil exports to a trickle. American drivers are reeling from ongoing shortages and sticker shock at the pump as they shell out $6 a gallon for gasoline. New York-based investment banker Tom Hanson (Christian Slater) is still reeling from the aftermath of an ugly and expensive divorce, and the company for which he works, the venerable Delaney & Strong, is on shaky financial ground. Hanson is still sharp enough to recognize a lucrative opportunity in idealistic Harvard MBA Abbey Gallagher's (Selma Blair) proposal to convert energy tax credits for eco-friendly businesses into marketable securities. He gets Abbey a gig at Delaney & Strong and starts putting her plan into practice. Meanwhile, an old friend of Tom's is killed in an apparent robbery and his boss, captain of industry Jared Tolson (Robert Loggia), asks Tom to take over the project his friend was working on. Tolson's Condor energy company is preparing to take over a Russian oil and gas company called Blackstar, but Tolson needs an outside evaluation of Blackstar's net worth before Condor's board will OK the deal. Blackstar's flourishing oil fields in Kazakhstan could help ameliorate the energy crisis, make Condor billions, pull Delaney & Strong out of its hole and revitalize Tom's career — all he has to do is sign off on the financial. But at the same time the energy tax-credit scheme goes south thanks to new regulations, Tom realizes that there's something very fishy about Blackstar's business practices. With Delaney & Strong's squeaky-clean reputation and his own career on the line, Tom is caught in a tightening net of blackmail, corporate corruption and murder. Shot largely in Toronto and cast with the best of the B-list, this film has the low-rent gloss of a made-for-cable thriller, chockablock with glamorous Russian gangsters, bloody hearts in Valentine boxes, hits on inconveniently principled executives and perfunctory romantic complications. But Epstein's insider knowledge helps ground the silliness and serves as a reminder that the dirty business of doing business is, like the making of sausage and politics, something the average person rests easier for not having seen up close.



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