Rating: 
Summary: Personal and professional education and inspiration
Review: My background includes both support for hiring the handicapped and personal selling. So I sort of felt that I should watch this one. To my surprise it was very engaging. Sugar coated? Yes! But inspirational none the less. From a salesman's and the sales manager's point of view, however, it drives home the point that no matter who you are or what you are selling there is always an emotional component in selling. Sales people get off on tangents about technical things and price objections. Sales managers want a repeatable performance, like a Ben Hogan golf swing, but strictly as prescribed by the company. But through it all people like to buy from people they like. The strong point about this story is that it is true. The movie makers may have sugar coated it but Bill Porter must have won friends, in spite of everything, in the toughest of the selling routines, or he could never had made it through 40 years. He could never have made it doing something with a faith that changed him from a dependent cripple to a self-supporting inspiration to others. Everyone should see this film but especially sales people who should then buy a copy for your sales manager.
Rating:
Summary: Commendable Film
Review: No doubt about it, Door to Door is the Outstanding Film Made for TV in the recently concluded Primetime Emmy Awards 2003. William Macy truly gave an astounding performance as Bill Porter, a salesman, but not your ordinary salesman. He can touch your life. Though suffering from Celebral Palsy but this does not gave him the reason to quit to be a salesman that de dreamed of to have. Truly, the triumph of human spirit was revealed in this film...overcoming whatever sickness, problems or prejudices that life can bring. Courage and conviction are elements that this film can show to us. I commend Macy and his associates for a brilliant scripting. There's no dragging dialogue and well-chronicled. I recommend this to everyone. Excellent!
Rating: 
Summary: Patience and Persistence
Review: One doesn't see the classic DOOR TO DOOR salesman anymore. (The occasional youthful hawker of magazine subscriptions or Girl Scout cookies doesn't count.) But for more than 40 years beginning in 1955, Bill Porter walked the same sales route in Oregon for the (real-life) Watkins Company, which sold (and still sells) an esoteric mix of products from laundry soap to dog biscuits to condiments. 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 and supported by his mother (Helen Mirren), who writes the words "patience" and "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 challenged 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 eventually 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 and fuzzy human interest stories that otherwise makes my eyeballs 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 and 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 and discovered that it's actually 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.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Patience and persistence. That's what Bill Porter's mother tells him on the day he goes to apply for a job with the Watkin's company as a door to door salesman. And it serves him well. After being rejected once, Bill returns to ask for the worst route available - the one no one else wants to take. Bill is now a working man. The movie follows his life as he excels as a salesman and as a human being. Its a great story to make you realize the effect you can have on people's lives - I won't say anymore, but when you watch, I'll bet there will be a misty eye or two!
William H. Macy deserved an Oscar for his portrayal of Bill Porter and the supporting cast is superb as well. Its a real-life movie that will leave you smiling in the end.
Rating:
Summary: Nice Uplifting Movie
Review: This film doesn't aspire to be much more than it is - a simple, well acted movie that follows a very determined man who has cerebal palsy through his life and career and shows how he snuck in touched others lives along the way. The movie is quiet and unfolds slowly. If you are patient, it will grow on you just as Bill Porter slowly grew on his customers. Touching and inpiring.
Rating:
Summary: Tear-jerker
Review: This film is one of the greatest I've seen. The story touches your heart, but also makes you think. Anyone who loves heart-warming movies, this is a MUST for your collection.
Rating:
Summary: If you Understand Cerebral Palsy ....BRILLIANT FILM
Review: This is a great movie, not only because it's a solid plot that is real, but the acting is superb. It seems as if you're just along over his shoulder, or the home residents that he calls on. Us normal types can learn much from such the Bill's of this world -- patience and persistence! The young of the world need to be more around these films and people. The world is better off for having them on the streets and coming to our doors.
Rating:
Summary: Heart-Tugger of a Movie
Review: This is a great movie, not only because it's a solid plot that is real, but the acting is superb. It seems as if you're just along over his shoulder, or the home residents that he calls on. Us normal types can learn much from such the Bill's of this world -- patience and persistence! The young of the world need to be more around these films and people. The world is better off for having them on the streets and coming to our doors.
Rating:
Summary: One of the short list of films you will never forget
Review: This movie had a profound impact on me. No one makes it through life without hardship. But some face more of an uphill battle than most. Bill Porter (played by Macy) was born with cerebral palsy, lost his father early in life, cared for his ailing mother and all the while resisted living off of social services and often refused even a helping hand. This movie will make you feel guilty for ever being negative, feeling sorry for yourself, or stressing over little things which are never as important as they seem. It will also remind you that physical disability is not a measure of a person's potential to lead a fulfilling life. This is a story of a remarkable man and will leave you inspired! The creators of this film could have taken the easy route and milked every sappy scene. Focused on the difficulties faced, played on your emotions and slapped on a Hollywood ending, like everyone else. Well, they didn't. They don't allow you to feel sorry for Bill, because they potray him accurately and Bill would not have you feel sorry for him either. However, the film doesn't patronize you by painting a rosy picture either. Bill faces real difficulties in the physical demands of his job and the realization that he may not have the things (marriage, children) that many of us take for granted. This movie makes you think, but allows you to draw your own thoughts. It shows the good with the bad. I loved it and it's not my normal genre. Outstanding!! As a side note: Nothing short of a crime that Macy didn't receive more accolades for his performance.
Rating:
Summary: Touching
Review: This movie is absolutely excellent! A must for the whole family to see!
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