At the beginning of Paramount Plus' new limited series, "The Offer," movie mogul Robert Evans delivers a soliloquy about discovering his destiny. “He was magical,” he declares. “Real magic. I knew at that moment that this was my calling. That darkened cinema became my church.”
Played by Matthew Goode, Evans is a true phony: a glottal-voiced guy who convinces himself, first of all, of the gibberish he spews at others. And his declaration of cinematic insanity, the first but not the last such speech he'll give during the run of "The Offer," stands in strange contrast to the show's ambitions. This show insists that movies matter, and it does so by shredding perhaps the most celebrated film of the second half of the 20th century and using it as fuel for an entertaining but uncinematic streaming series.
Director: Oliver Park
Writers: Hank Hoffman, Jonathan Yunger
Stars: Paul Kaye, Nick Blood, Allan Corduner
Broadcast-era Paramount Plus looks back to the original New Hollywood Paramount formula. And “The Offer” tells the story of the making of “The Godfather,” an Evans Paramount hit and, at the time, the highest-grossing film ever made, from the perhaps unlikely perspective of its producer Albert Ruddy (Miles teller). . Ruddy is not the inventor of the story (that would be Patrick Gallo's Mario Puzo) or the man who directed it artistically (Dan Fogler's Francis Ford Coppola). But he has two intrinsic qualities that make him perhaps an apt character for the point of view. First of all, he has some kind of superintelligence ruling that allows him to sneak out of the Rand Corporation to Hollywood, where, after doing something like cracking the industry's code, he enriches himself by producing the sitcom "Hogan's Heroes." Second, he has a flair for the dramatic, declaring that "I'm going to shoot myself in the face" if I'm forced to do that hit show for five years. (A third unstated quality that makes Ruddy a suitable choice to star in this show is that the real Ruddy is the executive producer of "The Offer.")
Written by Michael Tolkin and Nikki Toscano, “The Offer” places Ruddy on collisions with various figures, known to moviegoers and not. Evans is a consistent high point, with Goode taking a conspicuously egotistical turn as a tycoon who could only enjoy success if he were performing it. Teller is a winning presence, even when his character's proclamations about how different he is from those who are willing to be satisfied with mere success become exhausting. And Juno Temple is predictably strong as Bettye McCartt, Ruddy's assistant, even if one wishes she had more to do here. And the characters of Puzo and Coppola, both struggling with ambivalence about the material while writing a new kind of mob story, make enjoyable company, too.
Far less effective are the scenes between real-life gangsters, including Giovanni Ribisi giving a wild and distracting performance as Joe Colombo. The crime family boss objected to "The Godfather" being adapted for the screen and extracted concessions from the production, a rather interesting historical note. But Ribisi's vocal affectations never let you forget that the actor is trying to sound intimidating, and there's nothing less intimidating than that.
“The Offer” also lacks the sly self-awareness of its source material; Sure, it's an unfair comparison, but the show itself necessarily invites you. Here, the mobsters are never freed from the formula. Puzo's struggle to break with the classic techniques of mafia stories is well drawn; it's ironic that the show barely tries to do what the novelist and screenwriter did.
Overly long and lacking the touch of a tight edit, "The Offer" is a decent idea for a show that stretches well beyond the point of reason. (Some math suggests that this show, at 10 episodes each about an hour long, runs longer than the three consecutive "Godfather" movies.) It's a fun situation that has the potential to teach viewers a thing or two, none more pronounced than the tendency of Hollywood types to self-mythologize. And as a nostalgic play, "The Offer" is perhaps a bit too fitting, being so inadequate at telling the story it tells that you'll miss the original. Say this: The main reaction you'll have to "The Offer" (not unpleasant, but hardly an advertisement for the show's virtues as anything more than a corporate synergist) is that it will make you wish you were watching "The Godfather." .”
“The Offer” premieres three episodes on Paramount Plus on Thursday, April 28.
Watch The Offering 2022 Movie Trailer
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