One Last Deal (dir. Brendan Muldowney)

by Jack Martin | Mar 13, 2026

Certificate: 18

Running Time: 89 mins

UK Distributor: Vertigo Releasing

UK Release Date: 13 March 2026

WHO’S IN ONE LAST DEAL?

Danny Dyer, Elliott Rogers, Carlos Bardem, Katy Cavanagh-Jupe, Jahmaal Noel Fyffe, Dagmar Döring, Demetri Goritsas

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Brendan Muldowney (director), Peter Howlett (writer), Richard Bolger, Paul Kennedy and Patrick O’Neill (producers), Stephen McKeon (composer), Narayan Van Maele (cinematographer), Tony Cranstoun (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A ruthless football agent (Dyer) finds his career on the verge of imploding…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON ONE LAST DEAL?

Try as he might, Danny Dyer always seems to be at a disadvantage in the public eye. Granted, him taking leading roles in universally-despised films like Run for Your Wife, Pimp, Malice in Wonderland and last year’s Marching Powder doesn’t exactly help his image as a thuggish Cockney dunce, but there is a touch of classism when it comes to our overall judgement of the actor, his working-class roots and mannerisms putting him at odds with the more polished and, let’s be honest, middle-class and beyond movie stars we tend to gravitate more towards.

Which is why Dyer’s starring role in director Brendan Muldowney’s One Last Deal is an extremely important step for the actor. Here, he finally gets an opportunity to showcase his genuine talents as an actor rather than simply play up his star persona for the camera, and in doing so he manages to make a compelling case for the once-unthinkable reality that the very Danny Dyer we like to mock may, in fact, be a legitimately strong performer. It helps that the film itself is fairly decent – in other words, a masterpiece compared to many of his previous movies – and, certain limitations aside, a formidable character study told with airtight precision.

Dyer plays Jimmy Banks, an arrogant and conniving football agent who’s convinced that he’s at the top of his game, even though his number-one client – which is to say, his only client – Matt Gravish (Elliott Rogers) is currently awaiting an imminent verdict following a career-damaging rape trial. Nonetheless, he persists with securing new deals that could net him millions, including the potential signing of promising new talent Jerome Sweet (Jahmaal Noel Fyffe, better known as rapper Chip) to a major international team, a monumental task to which he applies his gift for the gab to lie and manipulate in ways that largely benefit him. Everything changes, however, when Jimmy receives a call from an anonymous figure who claims to have incriminating evidence against Matt, which can only be disappeared if he pays a hefty sum. But this blackmailing scheme ends up being about far more than money, especially as Jimmy slowly realises the painful truth that the writing is very much on the wall for him.

Oh, and by the way, the entire film takes place within Jimmy’s office, with Dyer on-screen at all times while every other character is literally phoning it in. Like a lot of single-location chamber pieces, this creates a somewhat stagey aesthetic where you could almost envision a production of One Last Deal being performed live on a West End stage, which Peter Howlett’s script often feels best suited for since it relies very heavily on dialogue to tell this particular story rather than filmic visuals. But to director Muldowney’s credit, he and cinematographer Narayan Van Maele make the most of their singular set, shooting it in ways that can feel quite cinematic in spots and even inserting small but significant pieces of visual storytelling, such as lingering on a canvas painting with a birthday message by Jimmy’s estranged daughter sitting unopened in the corner by the window (hint: he’s not exactly a family man), to signify his deeper character flaws. An intense, Birdman-style jazz drum score also floods the film with building pressure as more and more issues arise via incoming callers on his Bluetooth earpiece, itself a visual motif for how mechanical and cynical his life has become.

However, the intricate and gradually claustrophobic filmmaking isn’t quite enough to mask a few narrative flaws that often stretch credibility. It’s a film where the lead character has enough insurmountable power to dictate a nefarious cover-up scheme and even rope in a corrupt police officer to effectively do his dirty work for him, which is something you’d expect from a high-up politician rather than a mere football agent who, even with the wealth he’s apparently accumulated for himself through top-of-the-line deals and a shady Polish property investment, surely couldn’t carry that much influence. Plus, Jimmy is a slippery character – one that, for context, is undergoing treatment for past addictions – who tends to cave far too easily to temptation, with him piling on the booze almost as soon as the blackmail stuff gets underway without so much as a logical buildup to such a moment. A certain twist much later in the film is also easy to predict, mostly from how particular strands and characters are set up, but while you definitely understand the motivations behind it all there’s a lingering feeling that, noble though it may be in its overall approach, One Last Deal may be slightly unqualified to tackle specific subjects in the dramatic form that it ultimately takes.

But even with its glaring flaws, the film works primarily because of Danny Dyer – and that’s something I never thought I’d say in a review for one of his films. Dyer is putting in career-best work here as he leans into Jimmy’s sliminess with impeccable ease, his repugnant cockiness playing neatly into the actor’s natural swagger as he delivers some aggressively vulgar vocabulary like it’s a Shakespearian sonnet. He also gets to show a much more vulnerable side as he goes on this contained yet expansive emotional journey in ways that feel much more authentic than we’ve yet seen from him, tearing every aspect of his anti-heroic character apart to reveal someone whose actions and mentality are highly questionable yet do not deny him the possibility of personal redemption. As the only actor present on-screen, the whole film rests on his shoulders, right next to where the straps on his trouser braces wrap around them, and he nails it in ways that might finally have you considering him to be as authentic an actor as his peers.

That is the ultimate success of One Last Deal: turning an actor who’s widely seen as a joke into someone who’s far more capable of serious stuff than we ever gave him credit for.

SO, TO SUM UP…

One Last Deal is an engaging chamber piece that sees director Brendan Muldowney make the most of his singular location, but while the gimmick as well as certain narrative flaws provide a few limitations, it is Danny Dyer’s career-best central performance that ultimately carries the film.