Review: 'The Offer' Peeks Behind the Making of 'The Godfather'
Paramount Plus celebrates the 50th anniversary of what might be America's greatest-ever film with "The Offer," a ten-part miniseries recounting the cliff-hanging travails behind the making of "The Godfather."
Told from the perspective of (and based on the recollections of) producer Albert S. Ruddy (Miles Teller), "The Offer" packs so much into each fast-paced installment that you don't mind the occasional historical fudge. (Ruddy, for instance, is portrayed as a complete Hollywood neophyte when he pitches his idea for the sitcom "Hogan's Heroes," with his previous, brief tenure at Warner Bros. glossed over and ignored; similarly, the three films he produced prior to undertaking "The Godfather" are referenced, but only fleetingly.) Indeed, the series is so full of larger-than-life characters, with the episodes constructed so as to end on peak moments of "WTF!" excitement, that you can't help wondering how much in the way of artistic license, if not outright myth making, went into the scripting process. Ruddy himself executive produces; if nothing else, one does gain a healthy respect and admiration for his storytelling prowess.
Just as admirable is the casting. Teller, who impressed with "Whiplash" and starred in the dystopian YA "Divergent" films, has grown up here. Slick, charismatic, and confident, he more than holds his own against the likes of Matthew Goode, whose swaggering, fast-talking Paramount executive, Robert Evans, mentors Ruddy and runs interference with penny-pinching corporate philistines like Barry Lapidus (Colin Hanks, excellent) and hard-nosed executives like Charles Bluhdorn, a frightening Austrian played in a revelatory performance by Burn Gorman.
Equally revelatory is Giovanni Ribisi's turn as Joe Colombo, an underworld figure and the founder of the Italian-American Civil Rights League, an anti-defamation group depicted as having been created specifically in response to Mario Puzo's novel being adapted to film. For that matter, Puzo is perfectly cast, with Patrick Gallo filling the role. A plethora of lesser roles (movie stars, tough guys, studio suits) round out the stellar casting, but among the major roles the most note-perfect choice might be Dan Fogler as director Francis Ford Coppola.
The women in the cast are strong, if often underused. Nora Arnezeder plays Ruddy's wife, Francoise (whom Ruddy meets in the very same moment he makes the connections that lead to his TV and film career; the series is full of such dovetailings, as story beats arc into each other like trapeze artists in flight), while Meredith Garretson is luminous as Evans' wife, Ali MacGraw. But the spotlight is only truly given to Juno Temple's Bettye McCart, Ruddy's secretary, who's so smart, competent, and driven that a case could be made that she ought to have shared producer billing for the classic picture. She's given one of the most satisfying character arcs of all as a career woman looking to forge a path in a time and industry that's highly sexist.
The writing is fun, clever, and brisk enough to distract from the production's lack of scope. One puzzling choice is how the series avoids showing us re-creations of scenes from the movie as it's being filmed; we get splendid audio of the scenes, and sometimes uproarious reaction shots of the on-set crew watching in person or in daily rushes, but it still feels a little disappointing not to see the real deal, as it were. This is a TV show about making a movie... but it's still a TV show.
That said, it's a show that belongs solidly in the current era of prestige television —�and it's a show that no self-respecting cinephile, "Godfather" aficionado, or fan of solid storytelling will want to miss.
"The Offer" streams at Paramount Plus starting April 28.