When a homeless traveler decides to spend the night in a house that is still under construction, his sleep is disturbed by a rather shady-looking salesman. He wakes up to find that the half-finished house he was sleeping in is now fully complete and fully furnished. As the Traveler starts to pack his bags, the Salesman goes into his pitch: he is offering the entire house and all of its contents to the Traveler, if he will only take it for himself. The Salesman leads his prospective client on a tour of the house, incessantly chattering on about all of the amenities he's willing to include, while the Traveler remains silent. As the night progresses, the Salesman continues to try to sweeten the deal by offering additional benefits, including female companionship and a variety of other options.
Spoiler Alert!
After silently sampling what the house and the salesman have to offer for the night (including sleeping with the aforementioned female companionship), the traveler suits up the next morning and walks out of the house without accepting the salesman’s offer. As he walks away, the light shifts and we see that the house that he was in is once again a shell of a building.
A homeless Traveler encounters a
strange Salesman one night...
...who entices him with offers
of
wealth
and possessions.
Content
The concept of the story is interesting; however, it is not well-developed and, as a result, is confusing and anticlimactic. Although the Salesman is effusive in his offer, we never find out what the Traveler must due to obtain the house or the possessions. The Salesman is desperate to make a deal with the man, but he never says what he wants from him. (His behavior is definitely in keeping with the stereotypical trade-your-soul-to-the Devil mentality, but if he’s supposed to be Lucifer, we need more insight.) In addition to (and to a certain degree, because of this), we do not understand why the Traveler refuses the Salesman's offer. In order for the audience to understand why this happens, we must see one of two things:
The Salesman's offer is flawed. Perhaps he wants the Traveler's soul; or maybe the Traveler must kill the real owner of the house in order to obtain it for himself. Or perhaps the Salesman is somehow condemned to stay in that location, and the only way he can escape is to convince someone else to take his place. Whatever the reason, we should see that, in some way, there is something wrong with the offer.
The Traveler's current life is preferable to/better than the one being offered. Even though the character of the Traveler never speaks, there are several ways this can be conveyed. For example, perhaps from time to time, he pulls from his knapsack small mementos (pictures, trinkets, etc.) of the different places he's been and remembers what he experienced there. Or perhaps he has a picture/postcard of a place he's trying to get to. By showing the freedom the Traveler has, the audience can understand why he doesn't want to give it up for a domestic existence.
This is a very critical issue, because it forms the basis for the entire story. If these core concepts are not clearly seen or understood, it leaves the audience feeling confused, and --more importantly-- diminishes the power of the story itself. This is one of the reasons that making a character too silently stoic in a film is rarely a good idea, because there is simply very little way to get into his head. The only way around this without having the main character talk is with expansive use of narration.
Visual Look
The set design and costuming are excellent. (I particularly liked the Salesman's outfit; it reminded me of the suit Jason Lee wore in Kevin Smith's Dogma.) The continual presence of red-colored props (bedcovers, robes, candles, etc.) in the house was a subtle but effective touch, calling to mind the similar use of red props in films like American Beauty. The camerawork was also very good; I really enjoyed the creative transitions and cuts that were used in different sequences. The use of the Redrocm Micro M2 35mm lens adapter allowed the filmmaker to get a shallow depth of field, which was utlized heavily for the intro credits. However, the shallow depth of field abilities for things like rack focusing weren’t capitalized on much in the actual story, which was a little strange.
