Don't Come Knocking

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.

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.

Isn't is strange that two art-house movies come out at approximately the same time, made by directors who never craved mainstream fame and share significant similarities in plot? Well, this was exactly the case with Don't Come Knocking and Broken Flowers by Jim Jarmush. Both movies are about a man looking for a child he's never heard of before.

Then they diverge and we follow Sam Shepard's character, a mid-aged wannabe cowboy wasting his life away. In a slow pace he unravels the mysteries of his past and find more than he hoped for.

Don't Come Knocking is slow, but in this case it adds to the realism of the movie. And you get what you'd expect from Wim Wenders...

Greetings again from the darkness. Terribly underrated as a director, Wim Wenders has more than a couple of gems on his resume. Most notable are "Wings of Desire" and "Paris, Texas". Without question, "Don't Come Knocking" immediately jumps into the same class as those two extraordinary films. Collaborating with the insanely talented writer Sam Shepard for the first time since "Paris, Texas", Wenders offers up a character study that many of us have more in common with than we might first imagine.

With a rare appearance in a film he has written, Mr. Shepard plays Howard Spence, a washed up western film star who hits the road in search of the life he somehow missed. Admittedly, when the film opens with Howard galloping off into the desert away from the film set, my stomach began to churn as I had flashbacks to "Electric Horseman". Not long afterward, I became mesmerized by the pain of this man seeking redemption and meaning. Sure, there will be comparisons to "Broken Flowers" and many other meaning of life films, but writer Shepard never once pretends to be writing the great American self realization story. This is a VERY simple story about a handful of VERY interesting characters.

Jessica Lange (Shepard's real life honey) plays his long ago, nearly forgotten love who has never wandered from her small town Montana roots. What Shepard learns, after visiting with his mother (Eva Marie Saint) for the first time in 30 years, is that Lange has raised Shepard's son (Gabriel Mann). The focus drastically shifts for Shepard as he tries to make sense of it all. Just to add to his misery, Shepard is stalked by Sarah Polley (carrying her mom's remains in an urn), who suspects she is his daughter.

The genius of the film lies in the characters and setting. We never feel we are observing. Instead, we are part of the story. Winders camera angles really capture the thought cycles of Shepard in the motel room, at the bar and on the sofa in the road. Watching this would-be dad and these might-be kids come to terms with all of this is on one hand, slyly funny, but mostly intensely painful and intimate.

Spectacular performances by Shepard, Lange, and Eva Marie Saint, as well as strong support from Tim Roth, Polley, Mann and even the great George Kennedy make the story unfold in our reality. Wenders terrific camera work and small town setting with stunning panoramic views keep us comfortable, yet very aware. The pulsing guitar of the seemingly everywhere T Bone Burnett drives our pulse up or down depending on the scene.

This is marvelous film-making and pure joy for film lovers. At the post screening Q&A, Mr. Wenders expressed his enthusiasm for working with Mr. Shepard and creating a masterpiece out of a seemingly little story. We as movie goers are the lucky ones.

"Don't Come Knocking" is undoubtedly the best fiction film made by Wim Wenders since "Wings of Desire". Wenders joins forces with playwright/actor Sam Shepard and the result is a wonderful journey, in Wenders' best style, of a man who flees his life to search for himself. Howard is an over-the-hill western movie star who's had his share of sex, booze and arrests in the past. He never settled down and prefers the lush life. Until, one day, he decides to flee a movie set, apparently for no reason apart from an existential crisis. He searches for anonymity in his small home town, visiting his mother for the first time in 30 years and discovers he might have had a child with one of his on-the-road conquests. This realization sends the middle-aged man on a search which confronts him with his own past, the way he has lived his life and what he could have done with it, had he decided to live it another way. But don't expect a morality tale: Wenders and Shepard are too intelligent for that. True to his instincts, Howard will persist in his erratic behavior till the very end. In short, in an age of comic book movies, "Don't Come Knocking" holds you onto your seat with a story that lets us breathe a bit of humanity. Wonderful performances, with kudos to Jessica Lange, maybe in her best performance ever. And we still get a homage to John Ford with images of Monument Valley and the large expenses of the West. Truly, a gem of a movie!