Don't Come Knocking

Wim Wenders and Sam Shepard let you walk in the boots of a guy who's stepping out of his pitiful daily life to face the past and find out how this can be both hard and rewarding. Wender's beautiful slow moving style to unfold the story lets you follow and feel what's going on within the "hero" and the people he encounters. The marvelous scenery of the West is shot to remind you of some scenes of "Thelma and Louise". The music blends in wonderfully. The interactions are almost every time worked out in every detail and dialogs sound so real you can imagine this to happen in your neighborhood. Last not least all of it is played by an outstanding group of actors making it very hard to decide who'd be your favorite which adds to complete the reason why this movie is excellent to me.

Funny scenes, laughter and deep emotions - if you're a lover of fast-food (movies) - don't go. You'd probably find it boring.

Twenty years after "Paris, Texas", Sam Shepard returns with a sequel. Again, a family affair, our hero is searching for his roots in little towns and deserted landscapes.

The production shines from multiple angles. A superb set of actors, and Shepard's own fine performance as Howard -– a Westerns' actor of faded glory -- is almost eclipsed by (his life partner) Jessica Lange as the estranged mother of his son, Gabriel Mann as Earl, the son, and Eva Marie Saint as his stately mother. Comical roles by Tim Roth as the taciturn Sutter, a bounty hunter, and Fairuza Balk as the hilarious Amber, Earl's girlfriend, save the film from turning overly melodramatic.

In addition to the cast, Franz Lustig's cinematography is precisely lit and fluctuates between extremely realistic point-of-view shots with nausea-evoking 360-degree turns and time compression shots. The soundtrack is beautiful and includes some original pieces, and the costume design shines as well (although few people would wear those flamboyantly elegant outfits in Montana).

Despite all of its artistic achievements – acting, cinematography, score, and design – Don't Come Knocking suffers from a weak story line. A tired cliché about the man who've seen it all, had it all, but was never completely happy, and thus he abandons everything in search of the mother he hasn't seen in 30 years, and later his old lover and unknown off-springs. In the end, of course, they are all good, forgiving buddies. Don't Come Knocking is Hollywood sugarcoated at heart, but comes with generous helping of superb cinema, Wenders's signature forte.

I really wanted to like Don't Come Knocking. It's a contemporary Western by famed German director Wim Wenders, written by Pulitzer-Prize winner (and stud actor) Sam Sheppard, and including in the cast Sam's main squeeze (and my first crush) Jessica Lange. With these credentials, I would have bet that Don't Come Knocking would have been in my Top 5 at Sundance this year.

Not even close.

Here's my #1 criterion for judging a movie: Did I care about the characters? Love 'em or hate 'em, either one is OK, they just have to mean enough to me to care about what happens to them. And unfortunately, I didn't care two hoots about Howard Spence (Sheppard), the washed-up Western actor who tries to escape his past of hard living and general selfishness. I didn't even care about Doreen (Lange), a former girlfriend from a movie shot in Butte, Montana. And I certainly didn't care about Earl (Gabriel Mann), Doreen's son, no matter how over-the-top obnoxious his behavior. Maybe I did care for Sky, the Butte native played by the remarkable Sarah Polley, who was clearly the most likable and the only truly compelling character in the movie. And Tim Roth's portrayal of the studio bond man was interesting at least.

But beyond character development, this movie just didn't have any direction, suffering from the thinnest of story lines and a pace that often needed a quick kick from Howard Spence's spurs. It does feature some interesting locations and beautiful southern Utah landscapes. But that's not why we go to movies.

Wenders and Sheppard go back to their collaboration on Paris, Texas in 1984, and they spoke very fondly of each other during the Q&A. They collaborated on the story over a period of years and have looked for a chance to work together again. I wish they would have produced something better.

Interesting Tidbit from the Q&A: Sheppard's son Jesse is an expert horseman and did his father's riding stunts for the movie. Sam Sheppard also rides well, but his contract limited his riding to a trot.

Second Interesting Tidbit: Wenders has wanted to shoot a film in Butte for twenty years, since his first visit there, and was concerned that someone else would film there before him.

119 minutes – that's a relatively long runtime for a movie. But that doesn't have to mean it'll be boring. The sparse dialog in this movie isn't really what it's all about anyway. It's all about the emotions and the amazing pictures.

Sam Shepard portrays his role so wonderfully that you can sense his frustration with his life and his search for some meaning and his longing to change his ways.

Eva Marie Saint is equally adept at her portrayal of the old western actor's mom.

Jessica Lange, though, is truly outstanding. She steals the movie with one scene in particular and really deserves an award for her work in this film.

At the end of the day: this is Wim Wenders as we know him and as we like him best.

Wim Wenders has done it again. The authentic German American filmmaker has recaptured the nostalgia of the American West influenced by photographer Robert Frank and feeding off plot themes by his contemporary, Jim Jarmusch. But much like all of Wenders films, his plots are not the central focus. He is interested in details, symbolism, existentialism and the process of creation. What I always liked about Wenders was his taste in music. I always hear something new that I get very interested in. Don't Come Knocking has a wonderful score.The Buena Vista Social Club is an obvious example, but there is also the music of Madredeus in Lisbon Story or the Stewart Copeland country score in "Kings of the Road'. speaking of "Kings of the Road", there is an interesting detail that is repeated in this film: At the end of Kings, there is a cinema with a broken neon sign that only has two letters lit "WW" which is the signature of Wim Wenders. This film, has a bar called the "M&M". which is the same only upside down. The story of this film by the way is co-written by Sam Shepard who collaborated with Wenders on "Paris Texas" . This time, he also stars in the film as a cowboy movie star on the search for his ex and his son who he never met. The landscapes reflect the ghostliness of an Edward Hopper painting. Few people exist in the town where he shows up. There are beautiful shots that are very memorable such as the view from the health club looking out the window where Shepard and Jessica Lange are fighting. Another great scene involves a trade in identity where a guy on a horse gets pulled over by a cop and ....well you'll see. Alhough this film symbolizes the transition to reality, it looks as though reality does not appear to be as real as one expects. This is a refreshing film by one of the great filmmakers of our time.