The Salesman (2016)


The Salesman

This film made waves at the Academy Awards (not just for the Academy boycott). I’ve been meaning to check it out at some point, and finally had the opportunity to watch it on an airplane during a flight. I’ve heard of A Separation but never watched it. Going in pretty blind into this film, I was very pleased with the end product. I read Death of a Salesman in high school and was able to spot some parallels.

The film is about a husband and wife who work in theatre (on a production of Death of a Salesman). One night their apartment starts collapsing so they move into a new apartment. Soon the wife gets attacked in the shower while waiting for her husband. The husband becomes consumed with finding out who attacked his wife and attempts to pursue the culprit even as relationships around him start falling apart.

A lot of people didn’t find this to be as good as A Separation, or so I’ve heard. I thought the script for the film was quite sharp. Like Billy Loman in Death of a Salesman , Emad’s relationship is on the rocks. He must also try to avoid the humiliation of what occurred within his family and must wrong the right. While the film is a bit of a slow burn on finding out who committed the act, the clues leading up to the reveal and the ride is very fun to be a part of.

I found the last 30 minutes or so of the film to be powerful and it also helps to ascend the film to a higher rating. Its gripping and hard to keep your eyes off of what happens next. Its suspenseful but yet innocuous You know there’s no immediate danger to the lead but wow its a joy to watch what transpires. I will have to eventually check out A Separation, especially if its more acclaimed than this.



Leave a Reply


You are commenting using your account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s