Tom Lindsey, played by Jeff Clark, climbs into trees to retrieve empty hornet’s nests in Wellness.

Newport International Film Festival

If you can get to just one film at this year’s Newport International Film Festival, make it Wellness, which will have its first Newport International Film Festival screening at 2 p.m. tomorrow at the Opera House.

Providence filmmaker Jack Mahaffy’s film, shot almost in documentary style, is a funny-sad tale of a salesman who is caught up in a last-ditch effort to make it rich, refusing to believe that his dreams are slipping away and that he really is at the end of his rope.

Mahaffy, who wrote and directed, has encapsulated these troubled times in the form of the lumpish Tom Lindsey (Jeff Clark). Tom has sunk all his savings into becoming the northwest Pennsylvania regional manager for the Wellness Company. Wellness is a pill that, well, we’re not exactly sure what it does since it seems to help people lose weight, cures indigestion and makes people generally feel better about themselves. Tom, who is overweight, shows off a pair of really large pants that he says were his before he lost a lot of weight using Wellness.

He is reminiscent of the snake-oil salesmen who traveled from town to town in the late 19th century, huckstering the wonders of their cure-all products. But Tom is not so much selling the Wellness capsules, which he can’t seem to get supplied with from his main office anyway, but recruiting more gullible people like himself to invest $10,000. Then they, too, will be able to go on the road extolling the virtues of Wellness while, presumably trying to ensnare more of the desperate into joining the ranks.

Desperation is the operative term here. This is Tom’s last shot at business success and he knows it. That’s why he takes the verbal abuse from his fast-talking, hard-nosed unit business manager Paul Stubbs (Paul Mahaffy), who belittles Tom’s awkward attempts to come up with a snappy and savvy spiel about Wellness at the start of the film. In one embarrassing moment, both men chase a prospective customer down a snowy street.

As the snow flies across northwest Pennsylvania, Tom doggedly continues his rounds, even after discovering that his company credit card is no longer valid and he must give up his rental car, even when he’s down to only a few dollars for a meager sandwich, even when his “office” is a pay phone in a coin laundry. Stubbs, who has told Tom he is “on call 24/7,” is unavailable while Tom’s fresh leads dry up. Even as the handwriting appears on the wall on what seems to be a colossal scam, Tom refuses to give up. “I have to succeed at this; this is everything,” he tells Stubbs. Occasionally Tom phones his wife, telling her that everything is going wonderfully.

Clark is a marvel as a man who refuses to see the truth, the cold reality clouded by his dreams of success. With his weathered, creased face and his eagerness to please, this past-his-prime character is sympathetically naïve. A gentle man, Tom climbs high into trees in the dead of winter to retrieve empty hornet’s nests which he finds beautiful. He’s pathetic and yet one can feel empathy toward him as he is continually shot down by prospective clients who don’t return calls or pull out of the deal at the last minute. In one amusing scene Tom stands in front of a mirror rehearsing his story about the hornet’s nests, hoping it will win the interest of a prospective client, unaware that it only makes him seem weird and pitiful.

Mahaffy, whose lack of a Steadicam or tripod occasionally makes for woozy moments, has captured the essence of a person who is desperately trying to hang onto his last chance at success. It’s scary and poignant and touching all at once.

Wellness will be shown at 2 p.m. tomorrow at the Opera House, at 12:30 p.m. Friday at the Jane Pickens Theater and at 9:15 p.m. Saturday at the Opera House as part of the Newport International Film Festival. Tickets are $10 at the festival box office at 22 Broadway, online at www.newportfilmfestival.com or at (401) 835-5356.

*****Wellness

Starring: Jeff Clark, Paul Mahaffy.

Rated: Not rated, contains adult themes.