This is more in the vein of the Coen Brothers than the Zucker Brothers really, or at least their comedies. "Quirky" is the watchword here. Bits of the Hudsucker Proxy (other than the similarities in the name) and Raising Arizona, with the jaundiced eye of the outsider looking in on a white-bread culture that died a merciful death.
Jeff Daniels stars as Fred Barlow, the psychotically devoted leader of a vacuum cleaner distributorship who's behind the 8-ball to sell more product. He comes upon an insightful innovation that helps him rise to the top once more.
Lots of goof ball action by dorky Midwestern white people in the out-of-place, out-of-time milieu of the fictional Johnson City, where two teams of vacuum cleaner salespeople vie to take over the territory. Mock melodramatic speeches, inappropriate stirring music cues, and gang fights between vacuum cleaner salesmen. The characters seem plucked from a 1950's sitcom, even though the setting is supposedly present day. Do they even sell vacuum cleaners door-to-door anymore? Gotta love Jeff Daniels' sharkskin suit. Overall, quite amusing if it's on cable, but I wouldn't go out of my way to find it.
Jeff Daniels directed this, and I think he did a swell job, gosh darn it! Sy Suckerton would be proud as punch!
Fred Barlow: "Did I ever have sex with your mother? No? Too bad, you would have made a hell of an illegitimate son."
Jeff Daniels stars as Fred Barlow, the psychotically devoted leader of a vacuum cleaner distributorship who's behind the 8-ball to sell more product. He comes upon an insightful innovation that helps him rise to the top once more.
Lots of goof ball action by dorky Midwestern white people in the out-of-place, out-of-time milieu of the fictional Johnson City, where two teams of vacuum cleaner salespeople vie to take over the territory. Mock melodramatic speeches, inappropriate stirring music cues, and gang fights between vacuum cleaner salesmen. The characters seem plucked from a 1950's sitcom, even though the setting is supposedly present day. Do they even sell vacuum cleaners door-to-door anymore? Gotta love Jeff Daniels' sharkskin suit. Overall, quite amusing if it's on cable, but I wouldn't go out of my way to find it.
Jeff Daniels directed this, and I think he did a swell job, gosh darn it! Sy Suckerton would be proud as punch!
Fred Barlow: "Did I ever have sex with your mother? No? Too bad, you would have made a hell of an illegitimate son."