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Created Feb 25, 2017 05:20PM PST • Edited Feb 25, 2017 05:20PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   The Salesman validates my love of movies by bringing to the screen a slice-of-life at once prosaic and yet theatrical, and insanely thrilling. It’s also familiar to a Western audience, though set in Iran. Yeah, it’s an Iranian movie, making it utterly fascinating to Westerners like me who are interested in the Iranian people away from their theocratic overlords. No surprise then that it’s a nominee for Best Foreign Language Oscar.

   It’s Oscar pedigree extends to writer-director Asghar Farhadi’s earlier film, A Separation, which won the same Oscar in 2012. While I rate this one a bit behind that one, The Salesman is nonetheless a great movie.

   It uses two compelling plot devices, the first of which is utterly brilliant. That would be Death of a Salesman, a production of which the protagonists are putting on in a local Iranian theater. So all the neurotic drama associated with theater people is present, after which the interpersonal drama gets taken up several notches because the protagonists must internalize the trauma in their real lives while they perform as Willy Loman and his loving wife Linda. Further, the juxtaposition of a quintessential American play being performed in present-day Iran is rich in irony all by itself.

   The other plot device has to do with Iranian sexual politics and standards of morality. An unseen woman is accused of being a prostitute. Was she? More importantly, her reputation leads to trauma for The Salesman’s female protagonist and her husband. Dealing with such an assault is traumatic for any woman and the husband who loves her, let alone in such a deeply conservative milieu as present-day Iran.

   Farhadi masterfully ratchets up the tension, displaying almost Hitchcockian skill in doling out clues and creating explosive conflict. Oscar worthy? Sure, but as importantly, he’s proven himself a must-see auteur.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   Shahab Hosseini and Taraneh Alidoosti are terrific as a youngish married couple navigating their conjoined acting careers. This requires them to act at two levels: as thespians on-stage and as the actors who have lives and trauma off-stage. Hosseini proved adept at playing a guy with psychological demons in Asghar Farhadi’s earlier film, A Separation. His character in The Salesman is called upon to deal with marital trauma, which creates demons for him, a perfect role for Hosseini.

   The rest of the cast is very strong, with Babak Karimi a particular standout as a fellow theater stalwart.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Really Great 4.5

    Asghar Farhadi is a master at turning quotidian domestic situations into high drama. The fact that he does this in present-day Iran makes his films doubly fascinating to Western eyes. The Salesman also deserves hosannas as a great film about acting troupes and the drama that goes into making sure the show goes on.

11. Direction Really Great 4.5

12. Play Perfect 5.0

13. Music Very Good 3.5

14. Visuals Really Great 4.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.1

    Maximum thrills from minimal edginess

17. Sex Titillating 1.6

18. Violence Fierce 2.5

19. Rudeness Salty 2.1

21. Reality

    Glib 1.1

    The Salesman provides a lens into present-day Iran. Insights abound:

    • An apartment building becomes uninhabitable because of a neighboring construction project, even as it remains inhabited by tenants! This suggests an imperious and unaccountable government.
    • The characters are notably urbane, albeit deeply conservative in their attitudes towards sex.
    • Family relationships are central and touchingly sweet, a very attractive trait.
    • The theocracy remains offscreen, other than a mention that several lines of Death of a Salesman have been struck from a local stage production by the censors.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.4

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0