Travelling Salesman

Photo by Antonia Hayes

You have $25,000, what do you do? A fine vacation? Remodel your home? Go to college for two semesters? If you're a filmmaker, you make a science-fiction feature-length film. That's what Director Timothy Lanzone did with the intellectual diatribe Travelling Salesman. The film's subject is math; the title comes from the mathematical challenge of finding the most efficient route for a salesman visiting a number of cities, which is surprisingly complex.
I can't say it's the most entertaining of films; for the most part, five white male characters sit in a plain room arguing the ethical use of a mathematical breakthrough that would allow hackers free reign in once-secure sites. Oppenheimer and the atomic bomb serves as the key analogy.
Not having math chops, I found the conversation a bit confusing at times, but what I did understand seemed belabored. I can watch a stage play that is simply dialogue, but it must evolve. This one didn't, at least not to my satisfaction.
Still, it's professionalism is quite an accomplishment, for $25K. If you're the type of viewer who enjoys C-Span, you might enjoy this film too.