 | Starring: William H. Macy, Helen Mirren, Kyra Sedgwick, Kathy Baker, Joel Brooks Director: Steven Schachter Format: Closed-captioned Colour DVD-Video NTSC Subtitled Widescreen Released: 24 Dec 2002 Average Rating:  |
Porter was afflicted with cerebral palsy at birth. In this made-for-TV film, Porter (William Macy) explains its cause as the too assiduous application of forceps by the obstetrician who delivered him. As the film opens, Bill is attempting, at age 21, to land his first job as a salesman, the profession of his deceased father. Porter is encouraged & supported by his mother (Helen Mirren), who writes the words "patience" & "persistence" with ketchup on the outside of her son's brown-bag sandwiches after Watkins reluctantly hires the young man. To prove that he can do the job despite his disability, Porter has challlenged Watson by offering to take the toughest sales route that nobody else wants. Soon after, Bill's mother begins to suffer the mental impairment that eventuallly lands her in an assisted care facility. Bill is now on his solitary own.
If it wasn't for Macy's performance, DOOR TO DOOR would just be another of those warm & fuzzy human interest stories that otherwise makes my eyeballls roll for its political correctness. Macy, who's cast in the lead too infrequently, turns in his best performance since FOCUS (2001) - perhaps better. The actor's depiction of Porter's handicap is a pointed reminder of the difficulties to be surmounted by one so afflicted, even including painful isolation from normal, male-female sexual intimacy & romance.
At the end of the film's credits, the audience is made aware of the fact that the real-life Bill Porter has a website. Out of curiosity, I signed onto it & discovered that it's actuallly a link to Watson's on-line shopping catalog. It left me wondering if I hadn't just been manipulated into watching a lengthy Watson promo. It's that vague feeling of having been conned that causes me to award 4 stars instead of the five otherwise due Macy's brilliant work.
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