The Deal (2003)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

It's 1994. Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) does a deal with Gordon Brown (David Morrissey) for the leadership of the Labour Party. Twelve years earlier, both Blair and Brown are new members after a Conservative landslide forced to share an office. The bombastic Brown rises quickly in the opposition ranks. The more personable Blair is slower but is Brown's confidant and close political ally. After a close but heartbreaking election in '92, Blair pushes Brown to run for the leadership but is rebuffed. Blair becomes more ambitious. Brown makes enemies in the party while Blair makes gains in popularity.It's a fine docudrama about a couple of fascinating personalities. Both Sheen and Morrissey are well cast and great actors. It hits on the main points of history but it doesn't give the history life. Director Stephen Frears needs more personal moments between the two leads. The most compelling scenes are when Blair badgers Brown about his personal life and later when they start competing. This is a fine history. I wish Frears could dig deeper into the personalities and allow this to be even more Shakespearian.

The beauty of 'The Deal' is clearly the story, and for many a surprising and unknown real story. Peter Morgan does what he does best again by keeping the screenplay no nonsense and captures the delicacies of the time brilliantly. While many who may have in depth knowledge of the matter could have differing opinions on its deviations from reality, the movie is a very fine quality drama from a team which has given gems like Queen and Frost/Nixon.Michael sheen is fantastic again and David Morrissey is more impressive than sheen. A story very admirably directed and acted, this story captures politics and drama behind a real story joyfully - a match made in heaven!

By providing us not only with the political faces of these two great men but with their flawed human underbellies, the director drags us into the heart of the clash - the stylistic differences between Bed and Breakfast (Blair and Brown). What a performance.. Watch the news afterward and you won't know which program was the real one. 10/10

In some ways, the story of Gordon Brown and Tony Blair is profoundly uninteresting. Two men with a similar political philosophy consider challenging for the leadership of the party, eventually decide not to compete with one another but subsequently (in events not covered by this film) fall out. Of course, there are many "what ifs", but politics is full of these. The absence of a philosophical clash, or a deep personal emnity, makes their deal in some senses trivial - one guy stood aside for the other, so what? If any other job than that of potential Prime Minister had been at stake, would anyone care? Because of that job, their decision clearly had some significance. But politicians make deals all the time with one another - and had we not a media obsessed with political minutiae, that history might well have been forgotten. According to the briefings, it certainly hasn't been forgotten by Brown - but that doesn't necessarily make it important.Stephen Frears' film tries hard to reconstruct these events, but it fails to really gain life, telling us what we know already without really adding anything new. David Morrissey, as Brown, is less convincing than when given free rein to play a fictional politician as he did recently in 'State of Play'; Michael Sheen, as Blair, is always just a little bit more callow and hollow than the real thing. The story suggests there was little real friendship between the two, which reduces the tale to a series of empty manoeverings. And while it's fun to see representations of various political characters, we get too little sense of their whole lives. There are a few nice touches (Blair's instinctive family values, Brown's genuine grief at John Smith's death) but 'The Deal' still feels like a compilation of yesterday's newspapers. History will certainly remember both men, but their deal will surely rate only a footnote. For good or ill, Blair stood and won - and that's all we really need to know.