2005: Don't Come Knocking

Don't Come Knocking (Wenders, 2005) 5/10

Existential angst and Wim Wenders are synonymous with one another. From Alice In The Cities through to Wings of Desire and beyond, the former darling of the German Neue Welle has cultivated a visual lexicon of aesthetic beauty, frayed interpersonal relationships and concerns regarding the nature of modernity. His most recent project, the modern western Don't Come Knocking is another examination of the alien nature of contemporary society.

The film, Wenders' second collaboration with actor and playwright Sam Shepard, follows many of the previous themes the pair examined in the Wenders directed-Shepherd scripted Paris, Texas: the combustability of family, the isolating qualities of modernity, the intrapersonal need for reconciliation and the desire to find one's "home." Glossed in abstraction and reflective meditation, Paris, Texas became a cult classic thanks to Wenders' sparse direction and Harry Dean Stanton's taciturn lead performance. Unfortunately, the laconic sparseness and low-key performance, which defined Paris, Texas is displaced in favour of implausible scenarios, dubious acting and an imbecilic script.

Don't Come Knocking focuses on Howard (Sam Shepard) an aging star of film westerns, who abruptly leaves the set of his latest film in order to find himself. Arriving in Nevada, Howard reunites with his mother (Eva Marie Saint) after a three decade long absence. At his estranged mother's home, Howard learns he impregnated a waitress (Jessica Lange) while shooting in Butte, Montana twenty years earlier and thus goes on a search to find his long-lost family; encountering a collection of characters along the way including his angry, misogynistic son Earl(Gabriel Mann), a mysterious woman named Skye (Sarah Polley) and the studio's insurance agent (Tim Roth).

In an attempt to foster genuine relationships, the childike Howard jettisons his life of loose women, drugs and booze in search of something deeper. Yet, he is incapable of participating in permanent and concrete relationships. Meandering through life in a haze, Howard has failed to allow others into his life; yet childishly excepts others to allow him to reimmerse in to their life instanteously. Even his own mother only knows him from negative tabloid clippings. Despite his status as a hero of westerns, his lifestyle is better equipped to the neon environment of casinos, than the quiet platitudes of Butte, Montana.

The codes of the Old West and humble masculinity he represents on screen are lacking within his hedonistic approach to life; therefore rendering genuine interaction to be impossible. Like Harry Dean Stanton's Travis in Paris, Texas, Howard is unable to connect to the society he strives to immerse himself in. Yet unlike Travis, Howard is not a man disaffected by the glamour of modernity, but rather is a product of contemporary society's failure to build meaningful relationships. He requires modern vices to substitute for his limited emotional capacity.

Additionally, like in Paris, Texas the central characters are engaged in a personal search for applicable truths and familiarities. After the death of her mother, Sarah Polley's ambigious Skye journeys to her mother's native Butte in order to find meaning and purpose; Howard travels to Butte to find his family; while Howard's angry son looks inward to accept his estranged parent.

Wim Wenders' cinema is one centered upon the power of the moving image and thus it is no surprise that Don't Come Knocking is aesthetically stunning. Cinematographer Franz Lustig's Edward Hopper inspired photography is filled with bright colours and images inspired by the iconic American painter. Through Lustig's widescreen lens, the pictureseque detail of Butte, Montana is brought to life in colourful detail. But while previous Wenders' projects allow the respective film's visual language to advance the plot and describe the feelings of specific characters, Don't Come Knocking overindulges in Shepard's incoherent scripted ramblings: meandering in a sea of sedate ideas and choppy dialogue.

In recent films such as Million Dollar Hotel, Wenders has worked closely with friends such as U2's Bono with mixed results. Don't Come Knocking is no exception. One could argue that Wenders familiarity with collaborators such as Shepard and the playwright's partner Jessica Lange has resulted in the director's failure to criticize his friend's work. From the film's opening moments, Don't Come Knocking is propelled by a stream of improbable storylines.

The first of which focuses around Howard's status as a washed-up star of Westerns since the early '70's: a genre whose rapid decline began in the late 60's in favour of aggressive neo-police procedurals such as The French Connection and Dirty Harry . Secondly, the reunion between Eva Marie Saint is highly implausible as she re-accepts her prodigal son as though he has been gone no more than three minutes, let alone three decades. Thirdly, the interactions and dialogue between characters often defy logic in their absurdity such as the scenario in which Earl tosses his oversized furniture from a miniscule second-storey window onto the streets of Butte: failing to stir the seemingly non-existent residents of Butte in the process.

The impractical nature of Shepard's narrative results in a jarring and awkward storyline, which undermines the unsentimental realism Wenders strives for in this ill-focused film. The wandering focus of Wenders narrative and the elusive intentions of Shepard's script permeates the film's incoherent performances: Shepard's half-baked aggression and sense of loss feels contrived; Lange's waitress drifts from anger to ditzy eccentricity; Mann's over-the-top performance belongs in a high school production; even poor Eva Marie Saint comes across as a discordant Alzheimer's patient.

Only in the film's low-key performances from Roth as a slimy insurance agent and Polley's brilliant effort as an enigmatic woman does the film tap into the reservoir of talent at its disposal, which also includes a cameo from screen legend George Kennedy as Howard's embittered director and Fairuza Balk as Earl's girlfriend. In this restrained format Wenders excels; as evident in the film's noticeably excellent final thirty minutes. But these rare scenes of emotional fervor such as Lange's brutal rebuttal to Howard's romantic advances outside a health club are often wasted in favour of unnecessary directorial flourishes: such as the exaggerated encircling of Howard as he spends an entire day contemplating his past on Earl's weatherworn couch.

With its muddled intentions and mismanaged sensibilites, Don't Come Knocking is a tragic misappropriation of talent. Given its stellar cast and vibrant cinematography, there is potential for an existential critique of selfish ambitions, family and traditional values within Wenders framework. Instead the film becomes an ill-defined paean to the art of Edward Hopper and to the American West in locations such as Moab and Butte. The film lacks focus and consistency. There are too many dire performances from well-established actors and elements within the mis-en-scene which are routinely squandered in a visually fascinating mess.

* Don't Come Knocking is released by Sony Home Video

Other Wim Wenders Films Reviewed:
Paris, Texas (1983) 9/10

Copyright 2007 8½ Cinematheque