Tom (Adam Weppler) is a zealous knife salesman, and he walks door to door attempting to make money. The Christmas season is coming, and a little cash in Tom’s pocket won’t do him any harm–but he will find that selling knives door to door is far more difficult than he had expected. Tom the Knife Salesman depicts Tom as he deals with the trials and tribulations of a traveling salesman–and one particular interaction will define who and what he is.
Tom the Knife Salesman is an over-the-top comedy that, on the surface, makes absolutely no sense at all. In the grand scheme of the film, it feels that Tom the Knife Salesman is comedy for the sake of comedy. This may seem like the film may possess no meaning, but sometimes the world just needs to laugh–and that’s what Tom the Knife Salesman is, something we all need. While the situations in which Tom finds himself throughout the course of the film are dark and serious, Writer-Director Ryan Brown ensures that the tone throughout its entirety is lighthearted and accessible.
The film starts strong–laugh after laugh after laugh, and Weppler and Dan Berkey (The Burglar) are the individuals who are able to create those laughs for viewers. They bounce humor off of one another constantly throughout the first couple of minutes. But, just as quickly as that laugh-out-loud comedy came to be, it began to dwindle. This isn’t to say that the remainder of Tom the Knife Salesman isn’t funny, but I’m not sure that the jokes and the humor as a whole land on viewers the way in which it did at the start. When comedy builds, and the more subtle instances of comedy are built upon, viewers feel like it’s worth the wait, but it can be disappointing when a film starts out so wonderfully funny and then pulls back–especially when the intention is to keep the humor rolling. Tom the Knife Salesman peaks early, and it begins to fall off seemingly just as the film gets going. While it begins to pick up again comedically before its conclusion, that lull in the middle of the film leaves viewers wanting more.
The ridiculousness of Tom the Knife Salesman is what will likely appeal to viewers. It doesn’t necessarily require viewers to think about the things that are occurring throughout, but rather sit and simply take in the absurdity of it all. That’s the brilliance of the film–it doesn’t try too hard, and it doesn’t require viewers to try too hard either.
The unassuming cast allows Tom the Knife Salesman to work. Each and every character is goofy, even strange, and the actors convey these sentiments brilliantly throughout. Their ability to sit just left-of-center, while still possessing characteristics of an everyday person allows them, like the story, to be accessible. While the comedy present in Tom the Knife Salesman falls off just a bit after the initial interaction between Tom and The Burglar, it remains funny enough to keep viewers focused. Tom the Knife Salesman is an interestingly lighthearted comedy that is fun and entertaining.
Written & Directed by Ryan Brown.
Starring Adam Weppler, Dan Berkey, Brandon Thane Wilson, Chris Gillette, Andrew Colford, etc.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/10
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