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the audience applauded

Great Film overall

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

I don't really know Wim Wenders work other than Paris Texas, so had no expectations, but I found this film a real gem. The characters are wonderful. The performances (particularly Eva Marie Saint and Jessica Lange) are amazing. The whole thing looks fantastic, and the music is perfectly judged. I read it described as a film about a man who tries to reconcile with his past - and somehow the film manages to fit in 5 or 6 complex relationships so well that you get really transported to his/their world. Jessica Lange has a scene that is one of the best scenes I have ever seen. (actually she has several, but you'll know which). Initially I wasn't sure if Sam Shephard's character showed enough charisma for you to believe his life as the lovable rogue, but everything else is so good I'm thinking I might have got that wrong - perhaps at this point in his life where he is full of guilt it would have taken away from the story if he was still a charmer. Strangely the copy I bought on Amazon was only about 1hr45 which shows less than show on IMDb, but I didn't feel I had missed anything. Perhaps it was cut after theatrical release for the better because I can't really understand why the film I watched wasn't a huge success, I loved it.

Don't Come Knocking (2005)A disappointing attempt at gritty Western aura, movie insider savvy, and creative parallel plotting and editing. It has elements of camp, of post-modern drama (references to earlier movies or movie types), and even some genuine sincerity.There is a terrific George Kennedy, who is still active and very much making movies with his over-sized persona. There are smaller roles by several women, including a wan and frankly dull if pretty Sarah Polley. And mostly there is Sam Shepard being Sam Shepard, which is pretty good stuff. But he plays a famous actor who walks off a cheesy movie shoot into reality, and for the rest of the movie is walking as if in a dream through a reality he never quite knew existed.I think this looked great on paper. At least until someone read the script. It just doesn't hold water, partly for the simple fact that we couldn't care less about most of these folk. In particular, the movie makers, the directors and execs are playing meaningless roles that might mean something to insiders, but to the rest of us (I'm not an insider, thankfully), it's self-indulgent and, well, boring.What works best? Well, since the story pushes you out you look at the performances straight up, and some, like Shepard's, are strong (he reminds me of Woody Harrelson in this film, for some reason). There's the music (by T-Bone Burnett), an often used electric guitar sound with a country twang that is appealing and sometimes even evocative. And there is the filming, which is unadorned and very nice, depending on some amazing scenes, and the light and color in them. If there is ever an Oscar for scouting, for period sets that hype up the truth of a certain period, this is a good candidate. Certainly the light is romantically appealing.But I'm stretching to see the best in a plodding film that had potential and lost its velocity very early on. It has to be added that the director, Wim Wenders, has done some amazing work, and has his own following. But he might be trying to cash in on "Paris, Texas" which has its own small cult following, and which at least has a quirky and disturbing element to it. Here it is mostly a matter of wandering in the modern wilderness, and Wenders, I really believe, is not quite in touch with what makes America America. It feels cold and superficial. See his "Wings of Desire" for a masterpiece. Here? Have patience. Oh...and enjoy the scenery!

There aren't many ways to be a screenwriter, ways of delivering a story. There are fewer than the playwright has, though the stories can have more variety and structure. Sam Shepard crossed that line a long time ago. He was lucky at first, because he found a sweet spot where the limits of the portal between the two could have such restrictions that he could write about those restrictions and have them convey as some sort of existential clarity. Since then, he's been more active as a player than a playwright. But in this, he's less an actor than what used to be called a "character actor," meaning there's one type that he is famous for playing, and he just gets plugged in wherever that character is required.It must be extremely depressing to be so limited in your art and know it. The knowing is the hard part and I suppose its easy to see it as a life wasted. So what does someone in this position do? He writes about it. What else is there?So we have a story about an aging character actor who breaks away from acting. He just cannot stand it any more. So he reaches out the family he knows: his mom. And from that he learns of another family, and then a family beyond that. His real-life wife is an actress of some range and ability, someone less intelligent and perhaps as a result more committed and successful. She plays the old, short lived girlfriend he got pregnant during a shoot. Her character, though she is a waitress, is someone successfully in the world and able to cope with loneliness. Sarah Polley is a writer, actress, director who I think has enormous talent, which is a shorthand way of saying that she limits the art rather than the other way around that Shepard has. She plays a third layer of family, a sort of calm anchor, a sort of token of the other extreme from Shepard's character.That's it. That's the structure of this thing. All else are episode that set the fences and paddocks. Its pretty darned effective, if you know what it is, and touching.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

This Movie tells you over and over how overwhelming life becomes because of obligations that exist before you arrive or set up as you go through life in one way or another and the realization that you don't have the depth that everyone expects you to have in any given situation. The character is trying to fill up the wide spaces in his heart but everything that belongs in the spaces is too demanding to cling to so he takes comfort in the wide spaces and emptiness of places. Watch the surrounding backdrops and how they parallel this character. You want more, you're supposed to. He wants more but doesn't know how to find comfort there. There just may not be any comfort in having closeness to anything or anyone. I definitely agree with the person who spoke of SAM's influence on the screenplay it's great. I thought performances were wonderful and liked the little surprises like George Kennedy and Tom Cruise and Tim Matthieson (The voice of Jonny Quest Eva Marie Saint is perfect and so is Jessica Lange and Tim Roth. Step outside the box and don't look for "Hollywoodland" formula, look for what the writer wanted to impart and then feel the movie for what it is, not what you want it to be!