The film stars William H. Macy, who plays Porter, and also features Helen Mirren, Kyra Sedgwick, Michael Shanks, and Kathy Baker.
With the encouragement of his supportive mother Irene, Bill applies for a job as a door-to-door salesman for Watkins, a supplier of household items and baking products.
At first, his overtures for the job are brushed off, but Bill's offer to take the least profitable route and work only for commissions convinces the hiring manager to give him a position.
"[5] He added that "presenting the condition [of cerebral palsy] as if it's a mere hindrance rather than something that can entail a lifetime of medical care…doesn't do as much justice to the cause of disabled individuals as it wants to.
Heavily made up and wafer-thin, with speech slurred, back arched and ears protruding, he transforms cleanly into the man.
Mirren is awfully underused as the doting and determined mother who becomes hospitalized, Sedgwick is her chipper self in a part that doesn't require much depth and Baker plays her potentially profound role rather straight.
"[5] Carla Meyer of the San Francisco Chronicle praised Macy and Mirren and the film "is one of those triumph-of-the-human-spirit TV movies, with hankies mandatory.