Don't Come Knocking [DVD] [2006]

Don't Come Knocking is such as visually beautiful film and it's also superbly acted by Sam Shepard and the formidable Jessica Lange - complete with plastic surgery - but dramatically the film is rather inert and ultimately suffers from a sort of portentous and stodgy directorial style, which hampers what could have been a very fine film.

Directed by Wim Wenders, Don't Come Knocking is Largely set in Montana, and the scenery is absolutely stunning. Often occupying more than half the screen, the sky is like a character in the movie, which has a bright, distinct and totally vibrant look and ends up being the most interesting character in the film.

The movie stars Sam Shepard as a washed-up aging movie star Howard Spence. We first meet him just as he's disappeared from the set of a western in which he is starring. A 60-year-old drug- and alcohol-abusing playboy, Howard heads for home in Elko, Nev., a place he hasn't been in 30 years. We aren't quite sure why he's going there, we can only assume that he's having some kind of mid-life crisis.

Of course, the film is left in turmoil, but Howard doesn't care, he's like a little boy who is off exploring and he's oblivious to the chaos that he's causing. A no-nonsense representative of the bond company who is insuring the movie Sutter (Tim Roth) swoops in by helicopter and begins tracking the badly behaved cowboy.

While in Elko, Howard's reunion with his elderly mother (Eva Marie Saint) is cut short by the revelation that he has a twenty something son from a one night stand on a film shoot in Butte, Montana, so off Howard goes, to reconnect with his past. Meanwhile, a young woman named Sky (Sarah Polley) arrives in Butte carrying an urn with her recently deceased mother's ashes. Howard and Sky intersect at the restaurant run by Howard's old flame, Doreen (Jessica Lange) who is rather amused that Howard has turned up after all these years.

At a nightclub he points out his son (Gabriel Mann), who has turned into a sort of moody musician Goth, and he's is not eager to embrace his new-found father. By far the most interesting person in the film is Doreen and kudos must go to Lange - who I still think is America's greatest living screen actress - as she brings Doreen's mixture of wistfulness and naughty giggling to life.

Don't Come Knocking suffers from being a bit in love with itself. True, the visual impact of the film is unarguable and the deserted streets of Butte look both stunning and haunted - nicely rendered by cinematographer Franz Lustig - deeply reflecting Wenders' own penchant for an American West etched with loneliness.

But the movie trundles along, almost grinding to a halt in the second act where it becomes mired in the mud of disconcerted family business, and the resolution is quite predicable. It's as though the story is desperately trying to work up enough momentum to go somewhere, but the film just never seems to budge.

Still, it's refreshing to see the talented Sam Shepard acting again - and playing a leading man, even though the character is a bit of a selfish oaf. And it's also a treat to see him acting with Lange, his wife. For Howard, life as a movie star has been one of irresponsibility and fun; fatherhood has been a mystery and when he confronts its reality, he is just as dumbstruck as he ever was.

It's far easier for the western loner to skip town and never look back, and Shepard does a fine job of bringing this almost childlike man to life with all his dysfunctions and insecurities, just an ordinary American man just yearning to connect. It's just a pity that Wenders couldn't find a way to tell Howard's story a bit more lucidly and with less pretentiousness. Mike Leonard August 06.

I recently came to the conclusion that Wim Wenders had not made a good film in twenty years. However, after seeing "Don't come Knocking", I felt I had to revise that opinion. Subsequent to creating masterpieces like "Wings of Desire" and " Paris, Texas" his career seemed to go into terminal decline. His fans felt very let down by "Faraway so Close" and "The End of Violence". Although he seemed totally washed-up, with "Don't come Knocking" he almost re-establishes his credentials as great film-maker. In terms of its script and even some of its acting, it is actually quite clunky. Where it really succeeds is in the quality of its directing. It is a film of astonishing beauty.
The story, such as it is, deals a theme Wenders has returned to again and again. It is a sort of " modern man in search of a soul" idea. Like" Paris, Texas" it consists of a sort of meditation on the American Landscape, interlaced with American popular music as a background to a more corporeal narrative, dealing with a man and his relationships.

The film starts with its principal character Howard Spence, an actor played by Sam Shepard, walking out the film he is performing in to go in search of......well, what?
In attempt to make sense of his life he goes to visit his mother, played by Eva Marie Saint (yes, she who played Edie Doyle in "On the Waterfront" all those years ago.) He soon goes in search of his former lover Doreen, played by Jessica Lange and the son they had together played by Gabriel Mann. This personal odyssey take him to Butte, Montana, the home of his abandoned family. The Lange character is working as waitress in a coffee shop and his son is a singer in a bar. This allows Wenders to introduce a concert scene, continuing his long established tradition of blending popular music with high art. Jessica Lange continues her tradition of high voltage acting, presumably on one of the days when she was not having hysterics at the thought of George Bush.

In directorial terms, the film is a tour de force. Brilliantly realized shots are achieved, from the sight of diagonal sunlight falling across the vernacular American architecture of Butte to cinematography which captures the poetry of the American landscape. Some movie buffs will tell you that a film like John Ford's "The Searchers" is a visual masterpiece, famed for its depiction of the American Landscape. I have always viewed that claim with a certain amount of scepticism. Admittedly, this a view that is arguably based on nothing but snobbery. The idea that the European movie equals artistry but that its American equivalent must always simply be a commercial product is surely aesthetic snobbery. Here, however, we have a film which surpasses the work of American directors with the sheer artistry of its interpretation of America. If there is a fault with the visual quality of this film, it is that the imagery is rather too indebted to the paintings of Edward Hopper.

In one scene, the Sam Shepard character walks into a casino. He is in a space surrounded by green neon lights reminiscent of a piece of installation art or some high-tech Japanese architecture. In a way, it sums up this film. It is for lovers of the visual arts rather than those who appreciate drama communicated through either the spoken or written word.

I am new to Sam Shepard's work, and look forward to watching more of his films and reading his books. What an amazing actor he is. He really gets inside the skin of this strange character who has lead a debauched life and rides off the film set where he is working and goes to visit his mother who he hasn't been in touch with for thirty years. He can't relate to her: goes out for the evening drinking and gambling, and doesn't eat the breakfast she has cooked for him the next morning. She tells him he has a son and he goes off to look for him. He finds the mother of his son and we watch her laugh at him, and observe his son's fury at his turning up after such a long time - a bit over the top for my taste. But Sam Shepard is the star and it is his silent reaction to this strange environment he finds himself in which is so moving.