Review of The Salesman (2016) by Kenr — 18 Nov 2018

So, after watching, I read that I’ve just looked at an Award winning drama – this comes as a great surprise - as there’s little solid ‘Award’ material evident. It seems Awards are now given out to sell a trendy moviemaker or a ‘product’.

‘Salesman’ is a vague, dreary movie in every sense – now this can be a good component if used to its full value but, this work is centred around an incident that happens in a very scant time – so scant, that all the elements that make up the largest percentage of the overlong story are left wanting, as in, hardly believable or full of obviously undeveloped character motivation and situations.

Seems this is all award-winning works now need...a grim situation, overblown to look stronger than the writing actually sets up. Add to this a background reference to a literary classic (“Death of a Salesman”) to suggest this work must also be intelligent by association but, that ‘association’ can equally be seen as a highly questionable metaphor.

The situations that make up the sum of this movies scenario are somewhat pretentious and far from worthy of such high praise (as many other worldwide viewers have clearly noted) Performances are routinely good but the material is just too thin to last the dismal distance.

If you’re inclined to think Awards must automatically represent high quality you may be satisfied – conversely, if you see awards as 40% quality and 60% promotion you might join others among the disappointed.