--- title: "The Deal" year: 2003 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-deal" fi1m_id: "the-deal" imdb_id: "tt0381131" tmdb_id: 43699 wikidata_id: "Q7729378" fi1m_score: 73 critics_reviews: 3 published: "2026-10-07T13:54:06.674887+00:00" updated: "2026-10-07T13:54:13.594892+00:00" region: "IL" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Deal (2003) Directed by Stephen Frears · 1h 15m · Comedy, Drama, Romance, Thriller ## Identity The Deal - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-deal - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** the-deal - **IMDb ID:** tt0381131 - **TMDB ID:** 43699 - **Wikidata ID:** Q7729378 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381131/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/43699, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7729378 **Fi1m score: 73** · Critics: 3 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* Gordon Brown spends eleven years being right and loses to a man with better teeth > Peter Morgan and Stephen Frears compress eleven years of the Blair and Brown friendship into 75 minutes, and the result is sharper than most political drama at twice the length. Morrissey’s Brown is the heart of it. Sheen’s Blair is the warning. ## Synopsis Westminster, 1983. Two new Labour MPs, Gordon Brown (David Morrissey) and Tony Blair (Michael Sheen), are given a cramped office to share. Brown is the senior partner, a Scottish intellectual with a stack of papers and a plan to drag his party back from the wilderness. Blair is the charming junior, a southern barrister who agrees with everyone and whose wife Cherie (Elizabeth Berrington) wants more for him than the back benches. Peter Mandelson (Paul Rhys) drifts between them. As the defeats pile up and John Smith (Frank Kelly) takes the leader’s chair, Brown’s press man Charlie Whelan (Dexter Fletcher) and his adviser Ed Balls (Matt Blair) assume their boss is next in line. The film opens, though, in 1994, with Brown walking into an Islington restaurant to settle the matter over dinner. ## Review Peter Morgan’s script and Stephen Frears’s direction take a piece of recent British political history, the friendship and falling-out of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and treat it as a two-hander about who gets to go first. It was made for television, it runs 75 minutes and it carries a 12 certificate, and it is one of the better things either man has done. The subject is small, two men and an office, and the film is wise enough to keep it small. David Morrissey’s Brown is the reason to watch. He plays him big and hunched, a man forever shrugging himself deeper into a long dark coat, who reads while other people talk and is baffled when they do not notice he was right. It is not an impersonation; there is no voice-work to admire, only a temperament. Michael Sheen’s Blair is a different kind of achievement, all grin and open hands and that way of agreeing with whoever spoke last, so that we never once catch him wanting anything and know he wants everything. The two men in a room together are the film. The supporting cast is cast for exactness. Paul Rhys plays Peter Mandelson as a soft voice in a doorway, a man who has already gone by the time you work out what he said, and his few scenes are the coldest in the film. Dexter Fletcher’s Charlie Whelan is all elbows and tabloid instinct. Frank Kelly gives John Smith a warmth that makes his absence felt later, and Elizabeth Berrington’s Cherie Blair gets one or two scenes and uses them to make a decision for her husband that he will pretend was his own. Gordon Kennedy, as Brown’s brother John, supplies the only person Gordon seems to relax with. Alwin H. Küchler shoots Westminster in browns and institutional greys, mostly handheld in corridors, so that the place looks like a school nobody has left. Lucia Zucchetti cuts archive news footage straight into the drama, Thatcher at the despatch box, election nights, and it is a cheap trick that works: it makes the private scenes feel like the only unrecorded part of history. Michael Pickwoad’s shared office is a box of files and a window onto a wall, and Odile Dicks-Mireaux puts Brown in suits that look slept in and Blair in suits that fit. Nathan Larson’s score is spare, a little piano, and it stays out of the way. What moved us, and we had not expected to be moved by anything involving a future Chancellor, was the morning the phones start ringing. Smith’s death is announced, and the camera stays with Brown in his office while the calls go, audibly, to the office next door. Morrissey does nothing. He reads a paper. We felt a pity for him that the real man has rarely been offered, and the film earned it with a single sound mix. The weaknesses are the ones of length. Seventy-five minutes is enough for a friendship and not quite enough for eleven years, so some scenes play as briefings, with dates on the screen and a line of exposition each. The film’s sympathies are so plainly with Brown that Blair never gets an inner life, which makes him an easy villain and a less interesting one. And the restaurant scene the whole thing is built towards is quieter than its build-up. What is said over the main course we will leave to the film, but it is over fast, and we wanted another five minutes at the table. Frears and Morgan and Sheen would return to Blair in [*The Queen*](https://film.one/film/the-queen) (2006), with more money and more room, and that is the better film. This is the sketch for it, and sketches have their own virtues: it is quick, it is unsentimental about politics, and it knows that the most consequential conversation in a decade of Labour history took place somewhere with a wine list. Watch it with someone who remembers 1994 and let them argue with the screen. *Fi1m score 73, published 7 October 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is The Deal worth watching?** *The Deal* is worth watching for anyone with an interest in British politics or in watching two actors share a room, and we scored it 73. David Morrissey's Gordon Brown is the reason to see it, and 75 minutes is a small ask. The length does leave some scenes playing as briefings, and the restaurant dinner it builds towards is over faster than we wanted. **How long is The Deal, and what is it rated?** *The Deal* runs 1h 15m. It is a comedy and drama film. **Where can I watch The Deal in Israel?** *The Deal* is not on any streaming or rental service in Israel at the moment. It is available in 2 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is The Deal, and is it suitable for children?** *The Deal* carries a UK 12 certificate and contains no violence or frightening material; it is a drama about two Labour MPs talking in offices and restaurants. The certificate reflects adult subject matter and language rather than anything alarming. Children are unlikely to be upset by it, only bored, and teenagers studying recent British history may find it a quick way in. **How does The Deal compare to The Queen?** *The Deal* is the sketch and [*The Queen*](https://film.one/film/the-queen) is the finished painting: the same director, writer and Michael Sheen's Tony Blair, but the later film has more money, more room and Helen Mirren. We think *The Queen* is the better of the two. *The Deal* is tighter and more unsentimental about politics, so start here if you want the friendship and there if you want the fuller film. **What should I watch after The Deal?** After *The Deal*, try [*The Queen*](https://film.one/film/the-queen) (2006, Fi1m 84): Frears, Morgan and Sheen’s Blair again, this time with a monarch to manage. Then [*The Thick of It*](https://film.one/tv/the-thick-of-it) (2005, Fi1m 94): The same corridors a decade on, with the swearing left in. ### Reviews we read (3) - **The Guardian**, Michael Portillo and Tim Allan (65/100, inferred): Both reviewers find the drama compelling, though they differ in their assessment of its historical portrayal. They praise the performances and Peter Morgan’s engaging script, while noting that the characters and events are not fully accurate. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/sep/25/politicsandthearts.television) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Barry Garron (65/100, inferred): Garron finds the political story compelling but short of great drama. He praises Michael Sheen and David Morrissey’s performances, while noting that Frears’s direction seems to favor Brown. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/deal-2-158411/) - **Variety**, Derek Elley (50/100, inferred): Elley finds the film smoothly directed and well cast, but more docudrama than dramatically compelling movie. He especially praises Paul Rhys’s chilling performance as Peter Mandelson. [Read](https://variety.com/2003/film/reviews/the-deal-5-1200538964/) ## Details - **Director:** Stephen Frears - **Director:** Stephen Frears - **Writer:** Peter Morgan - **Cinematography:** Alwin H. Küchler - **Editor:** Lucia Zucchetti - **Music:** Nathan Larson - **Production design:** Michael Pickwoad - **Costume design:** Odile Dicks-Mireaux - **Producer:** Christine Langan - **Cast:** David Morrissey as Gordon Brown; Matt Blair as Ed Balls; Michael Sheen as Tony Blair; Dexter Fletcher as Charlie Whelan; Frank Kelly as John Smith; Stuart McQuarrie as Scottish MP 1; Ian Hanmore as Scottish MP 2; Paul Rhys as Peter Mandelson - **Runtime:** 1h 15m - **First release (the UK):** 28 September 2003 - **Genres:** Comedy, Drama, Romance, Thriller ## Where to watch in Israel Not streaming, renting or buying in Israel at the last check. Also available in: GB, IE. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *The Queen* (2006), Fi1m 84: Frears, Morgan and Sheen’s Blair again, this time with a monarch to manage — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-queen.md) - *Primary Colors* (1998): The American version of charm beating conviction, with Travolta grinning through it - *Il Divo* (2008): Sorrentino’s Andreotti, a politician filmed as if he were a ghost - *The Thick of It* (2005), Fi1m 94: The same corridors a decade on, with the swearing left in — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/the-thick-of-it.md) - *The Candidate* (1972): Redford learns what a smile costs; the dry grandfather of all this --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-deal