Understated. This film is a minimalist – almost a video stage play about travelling salesmen, set at a convention. It’s about what you can tell about someone from a handshake. What you can learn about each other – three men sitting in a hotel room for a day. Phil (Danny DeVito) as the kind and generous mentor to the younger, complex, tightly wound and not everything he seems to be, Bob (Peter Facinelli).
Larry (Kevin Spacey) is the more abrasive, yet playful motivator. It’s more than merely philosophy, it’s drama. Bob seems naïve, but also judgemental and arrogant. These are complex characters and their tolerance of each other is continually tested.
The opening is artful. The story is a play. The dialogue flits from topic to topic, testing each other out with tense verbal attacks. The film relies on these taut performances. The writing is subtle in concept, yet powerful in conflict. The ideas are about how we live our lives, how we carry ourselves and present ourselves to others. How we lie to each other and to ourselves.
The story is simply three guys talking about sales in a hotel room. It could be more, but it isn’t. However, the way it is written and performed grabs the viewer’s interest and keeps you watching as these characters spar with each other while at the same time walking on eggshells around the elephant in the room.
Bob is the catalyst for the two distinguished and noble players to bounce around dramatic dialogue.
the joy of eating and the folly of thinking 