A Wall Street investment firm picks broker Tom Hanson (Christian Slater) to negotiate a deal between the Russians and an American oil company that also happens to be his firm’s biggest client in The Deal. All seemingly looks good until people start getting murdered. Hanson suspects something more sinister lurking in this deal and sets off to find out what.

The standard Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is here, but the movie doesn’t give the audio track much to do except keep the dialogue intelligible, which it does. The 1.85:1 anamorphic picture captures the demure palette of finely tailored garb, large cherry-oak conference tables, and a high-finance corporate-office look. Lots of grays, browns, briefcases, and files abound. But the story’s a convoluted mess that takes so long to start, the second half just can’t overcome it. Extras are nonexistent.

Selma Blair works hard as Abbey, a new associate and love interest who becomes a pawn as the web grows larger. But she’s given so much worthless dialogue that it’s difficult to really buy into her character. The movie is crushingly slow, and, by the time something actually happens, you don’t care. There’s lots of talent here with Angie Harmon, Robert Loggia, and Kevin Tighe, but The Deal is dull. I watch-checked at about thirty minutes into the film and every ten minutes after that. The cool premise just flatlines.