A Salesman With Courage, Purpose

Spending two hours with a door-to-door salesman wasn’t initially my idea of a good time, but that was before being introduced to pavement-pounder extraordinaire Bill Porter. And it’s his unusual story, told unusually well, that unfolds with a relaxed grace in Sunday night’s fine made-for-TNT movie, “Door to Door” (8 p.m.).

The wondrous William H. Macy (“Fargo,” “Magnolia”) plays Porter, a real-life door-to-door salesman from Oregon who just happens to have been born with cerebral palsy.

But if you suspect this to be merely another disease-of-the-week flick with a beat-the-odds heart, you’d be selling it short.

Director Steven Schachter, who co-wrote the film with Macy, wisely pulls back to give us a wider perspective on this life of a salesman. In addition to scenes with Porter’s sparse inner circle, we get to know a handful of the customers on his route and how their lives are subtly changed through the years by their contact with him.

Of course, having some world-class supporting players doesn’t hurt. Helen Mirren (“Gosford Park”) has some wonderful moments as Porter’s mother and chief motivational guru, as does Kathy Baker in the role of a lonely alcoholic who is Porter’s best customer but maybe yearns to be something more.

Kyra Sedgwick (“Something to Talk About”) is also first-rate as Porter’s assistant, friend and fleeting object of his own something-more yearnings.

But it’s Macy who anchors the movie, which calls upon him to age more than 40 years. With his twisted gait and strangled speech, we feel every painful, single-minded step Porter took on the way to becoming one of his sundry company’s top salesmen.

As for the real Porter, he’s 69 and still selling, now via the Internet. This movie ought to be good for business.