page_title: The Salesman (2016 film)
section_title: Critical response
hierarchical_section_title: The Salesman (2016 film) / Reception / Critical response
caption_attribution_description: فارسی: نشست خبری فیلم سینمایی فروشنده با حضور اصغر فرهادی کارگردان و شهاب حسینی و ترانه علیدوستی بازیگران این فیلم شامگاه دوشنبه ۱۰ خرداد ۱۳۹۵ در خانه همایش
context_page_description: The Salesman is a 2016 drama film written and directed by Asghar Farhadi and starring Taraneh Alidoosti and Shahab Hosseini. It is about a married couple who perform Arthur Miller's 1949 play Death of a Salesman on stage. When the wife is assaulted, her husband attempts to determine the identity of the attacker, while she struggles to cope with post-trauma stress. Farhadi chose Miller's play as his story within a story based on shared themes. A co-production between Iran and France, the film was shot in Tehran, beginning in 2015.
  The film premiered in competition in the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, where it won two awards—Best Screenplay for Farhadi and Best Actor for Hosseini. The Salesman went on to receive more positive reviews, and won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. However, Farhadi did not attend the 89th Academy Awards ceremony in protest of the U.S. Executive Order 13769.
context_section_description: The film received critical acclaim. It holds a 96% "fresh" rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 183 reviews with a weighted average score of 8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Salesman takes an ambitiously complex look at thought-provoking themes, and the well-acted results prove another consistently absorbing entry in writer-director Asghar Farhadi's distinguished filmography." On Metacritic, it holds an 85/100 rating, based on 36 reviews from critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
  After its Cannes screening, Owen Gleiberman wrote in Variety that, following Farhadi's A Separation and The Past, The Salesman "is another finely cut gem of neorealist suspense." Donald Clarke's review from The Irish Times stated that "The latest from Asghar Farhadi sees another family put under stress after a violent attack." Deborah Young in The Hollywood Reporter summarized the film as "Masterful particularly in the finale, but not so readily engaging." Time Out critic Dave Calhoun gave the film three of five stars, dissatisfied with the ending.
  The film was supported by Iranian social media users, and after its screening and two awards at Cannes, some government officials and politicians congratulated Farhadi. However, conservatives accused the film of Siahnamayi (disparaging Iran).
  In The New York Times, A.O. Scott wrote it was not initially clear why Death of a Salesman was selected, but Willy Loman's presence soon became felt, and favourably compared the use of the play to All About My Mother's use of A Streetcar Named Desire. Peter Travers gave the film three and a half stars in Rolling Stone, praising it as "a dazzling, darkly funny, quietly devastating human drama." Entertainment Weekly gave it an A, with Joe McGovern writing the end had great impact. In The Globe and Mail, Kate Taylor gave it four stars, assessing the film as a subtle work with multiple dimensions. Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote in the Chicago Reader that the film was intense, comparing Farhadi to Elia Kazan. Conversely, Bilge Ebiri of LA Weekly wrote that, while Farhadi was talented in intensity and drama, this effort was artificial. The Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw gave it three stars out of five, assessing it as one of Farhadi's lesser films, "potent" but derivative. For The Independent, Geoffrey Macnab gave it four stars, praising Hosseini and Alidoosti's performances. Charlotte O'Sullivan gave it three stars out of five in the London Evening Standard, faulting the screenplay for lack of subtlety.
caption: Farhadi's direction and Shahab Hosseini's performance received positive reviews.
exif: {}