Don't Come Knocking (2006)

Road to Nowhere

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Don't Come Knocking on DVD

Wim Wenders re-teams with his Paris, Texas (1984) co-author Sam Shepard for this new road movie. In that classic, Harry Dean Stanton played the male wanderer, searching for the mystery of his life. This time the mystery is gone; Shepard plays the lead, a washed-up cowboy actor, Howard Spence, who walks away from the set of his latest film. Visiting his mother (Eva Marie Saint), he learns that he may have fathered a son during his free and easy days. That leads him to Butte, Montana where he finds an old flame (Jessica Lange), the nonplussed young man (Gabriel Mann) and yet another potential offspring (Sarah Polley). Howard is one of Shepard's weak, needy males and the outcome of his journey is already all too familiar. The supporting characters, who would normally give Howard a hand, here simply hang around, stare at each other, throw fits, walk away and change their minds; none of them have any focus. Wenders doesn't appear to have any either. Still, the veteran director comes up with some beautiful moments, mainly in capturing the story's specific sense of place, the wide-open roads and the hope that there's something left to find there. Tim Roth co-stars as a bond company detective hot on Howard's trail, and George Kennedy plays a film director.

Starring: Sam Shepard, Jessica Lange, Tim Roth, Gabriel Mann, Sarah Polley, Fairuza Balk, Eva Marie Saint, James Gammon, George Kennedy, Marley Shelton, Julia Sweeney, Tim Matheson, Majandra Delfino, Marieh Delfino
Written by: Sam Shepard, Wim Wenders
Directed by: Wim Wenders
MPAA Rating: R for language and brief nudity
Running Time: 122 minutes
Date: March 24, 2006