The Smell of Success

2009

Comedy

Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 28% · 100 ratings
IMDb Rating 5.2/10 10 1362 1.4K

Plot summary

When a tragic accident ends the life of Mr. Rose, the genius behind Rose's Manure Company, the livelihood of its loyal fleet of salesmen threatens to go, as they say, into the toilet. Enter estranged daughter Rosemary, a high-class- cosmetics salesgirl, who steps in to take control. She is not sure she has a nose for the family business, but she is determined to make foul into profit. Little does she know that a ruthless, slick-talking fertilizer rep is plotting a takeover. Whether she likes it or not, she must trust her top salesman, Patrick Fitzpatrick, to devise a plan to regain Rose's rightful position on top of the heap.



October 28, 2023 at 07:42 AM

Director

Michael Polish

Top cast

Téa Leoni as Rosemary Rose
Billy Bob Thornton as Patrick
Kyle MacLachlan as Jimmy St. James
Frances Conroy as Agnes May
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
834.47 MB
1280*544
English 2.0
PG-13
23.976 fps
1 hr 30 min
Seeds ...
1.67 GB
1920*816
English 5.1
PG-13
23.976 fps
1 hr 30 min
Seeds ...

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by plasmapilot 9 / 10

A SILLY & FUNNY NON-CEREBRAL FLICK!

This terrific ensemble cast really delivered the laughs with charm! My rating is based on pure enjoyment & that was certainly provided by BILLY BOB THORNTON & TEA LEONII. The dialog was as critical to this film as the well executed dynamics of the supporting actors. It was certainly silly & that's what made it so much fun to watch! Surprises included free of charge!

Reviewed by nogodnomasters 9 / 10

FEEL FREE TO TOUCH IT,

The production utilizes a brown surreal back drops for effect. All the salesmen drive identical brown Plymouths, apparently synonymous with crap. The beginning of the film is loaded with manure humor. Like real manure, after you have been around it for a while, you don't notice it. Mr. Rose dies and leaves the company to his city daughter Rosemary (Téa Leoni). The time frame is the mid 60's. She attempts to get the debt ridden company under control and rides with the salesmen of which Patrick Fitzpatrick (Billy Bob Thornton) is the best.

Things aren't going too well, then the bottom drops out when a rival company threatens to push them out of business, resulting in an unorthodox war between the companies. Meanwhile there is a mysterious man called Nose-tra-dameus or Nelly the Nose (Richard Edson) who visits the office.

The movie is clever, even without the manure humor. Ed Helms is his typical self while Pruitt Taylor Vince gives us his likeable big guy role. I loved the backdrops as every day had a brown hue overcast. My biggest negative was the anachronism of the Endangered Species Act (1973).

No f-bombs, sex, or nudity. Fake man boobs. Frequent S-word usage, move over South park.

Reviewed by wmjaho 4 / 10

Insert whatever excremental pun you can think of

Anyone that has seen a movie by Mark and Michael Polish should come to expect something unusual. Their latest film, Manure, delivers in spades (yeah, that was a pun). Actually, this movie might best be seen under the influence of drugs. Being straight and sober, I'm not sure I appreciated it. Or understood it. Or perhaps I fell asleep and dreamt this.

Starring Billy Bob Thornton and Tea Leoni, the story is about a woman living in New York (Rosemary Rose) who inherits her father's manure company after his untimely passing. Thornton is the lead salesman (Patrick). Together they try to save the company from bankruptcy. That's the sane part.

Here's the silly stuff: Unfortunately, making Rose Manure profitable involves selling a lot of s___ (only one of maybe 200 excrement jokes and puns in the movie). And there's no better bulls____ than Patrick (trust me, they never stop).

No, no, that was the sane part. This is what's zany: Turns out there's new competition in the form of a chemical fertilizer company entering the market, actually by parachuting in countless crates of chemical fertilizers as well as black-suited salesmen who land carrying briefcases.

Hold it, that's still pretty tame compared to the psychedelic mushrooms they eat which causes them to vomit voluminously onto one another and hallucinate, or dressing up the Rose salesmen as Indians to burn at the stake, or the 48 Triple-D breasts one of the salesmen grows when he eats some fertilizer, or the vegetable masks. And there's plenty more where that came from.

The plot is as silly as you can imagine, and like all the acting (except Thornton), way over the top. The sets typically include backdrops, with everything (EVERYTHING) in various shades of brown. You could not conceive of a more ridiculous movie. Which would be perfect if you were in the right mood (know what I mean?). But passing joints is not allowed at Sundance screenings, so most of the crowd was left shaking their heads and wondering what it was they just witnessed.

Notes from Sundance The cast was all present on opening night. Thornton and Leoni were sitting right in front of me. They were both very gracious with fans, allowing their photos to be taken and being great sports. After the movie, Thornton was very funny and clever. But the Q&A quickly fizzled. The audience was too shell-shocked to think of intelligent questions. And no one had the audacity to ask Mark and Michael Polish what was on everyone's mind: "What the heck were you guys thinking?!!!"

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