11/20/06 Don't Come Knocking

Don't Come Knocking (2005), directed by Wim Wenders

watched solo; DVD rental (Blockbuster) @ home & car ride (Raleigh, NC)

There was a period in college (basically because I had a German Cinema class and access to the university's movie library for rentals) when I was in to watching Wenders' stuff...if nothing more than for interest into something different or artsy. I'll be the first to admit that some of his stuff can be utterly boring and drag on, but then there are others that are very in tune with human emotions and relationships with one another. There you have the bad ("The End Of Violence" comes to mind) and the good ("Paris, Texas" and "The American Friend" to name two). I consider this one to fall in the latter category, as it stands as a simplistic yet mesmerizing tale of redemption and finding oneself. In a combination of talent, Sam Shepard comes in with not only the lead acting part in the story, but also penned the screenplay for the film. Sheapard plays Howard Spence, a washed up western film star who has for years drowned his sorrows in booze, drugs and women...squandering the high life and putting his secretive past behind him. Finally wanting something solid, Howard suddenly leaves a film shoot in the desert to travel back to his boyhood home and visit his mother (Eva Marie Saint) that he hasn't seen in decades. Upon this stilted reunion with his mother, Howard comes to find out something about his long-lost and jilted lover of his past, Doreen (Jessica Lange). Doreen, the only woman he's truly ever loved and never had the courage to stand beside forever, may very well have had his child and been keeping it secret from his Hollywood world. Now set on a quest to find them both, Howard is a man with an empty soul and sent in the first true direction of his life. It goes without saying that the reunion will happen with many bristles, trudging up past mistakes and misfortunes...and a son that wants nothing to do with a deadbeat father. All the while, another journey is happening with a young woman (Sarah Polley) who also looks for the long-lost father from another relationship, and whose path may very well cross in their common journeys. Set amongst a desolate western backdrop, and punctuated with a quiet western town full of wild personalities (an ensemble cast including Fairuza Balk as the son's erratic girlfriend, and Tim Roth as the man assigned to bring Howard and his contract back to the Hollywood shoot)...the film flows very smoothly into an intoxicating tale of solace. Albeit a dusty dirty bumpy trail to solace, but a beautiful one nonetheless. Wenders, you have done the lonely beleaguered soul well again...and maybe some college kid can check out this work in some other German Cinema course.

4 out of 5 stars