The Salesman

The film offers insights into Iranian society while also subtly making a case that human foibles are universal.

Asghar Farhadi's film yields a tonal and emotional friction that's simultaneously tragic, transcendent, and comic.

The acting is wonderful throughout, but Alidoosti creates an especially haunting depiction of one woman's adversities in a country, and a marriage, that may not have her best interests at heart.

Though it is dense in allusion and rich in texture, there are choices he makes that ultimately pull The Salesman back from the greatness, and the engulfing universality of his best work. It is as compelling as anything Farhadi has ever made, but it’s also somehow smaller.

This is a rich and complex take on guilt and anger.

Like his Oscar-winning “A Separation,” Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s latest, nominated for this year’s Best Foreign Language Film, is an expertly crafted domestic thriller.

The Salesman is a well-crafted, valuable drama.

i like the movie farhadi's films always make me think more about some normal and routine issues around us like his last oscar movie "the seperation" and good acting is another good featuers of his works

It's not Farhadi's best work but it worth watching for one time.Actually I'm a bit **** absolutely had one or two holes in its **** could this screenplay win CANNES award????

Great acting, but it's very slow to start. Worth a watch, but this isn't anything revolutionary. It does illustrate Iranian culture in terms of relationships.

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.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]