Review of Don't Come Knocking (2005) by Matthew H — 22 Mar 2006

March 17, 2006 (limited).

[size=5][color=darkred][b]I[/b][/color][/size]t's understandable what Sam Shepard wanted to accomplish with "Don't Come Knocking." Shepard wrote the screenplay from a story he co-wrote with Wim Wenders, who directs. The film's ambitions and realities are on two different playing fields, and it's unfortunate that viewers suffer the consequences.

Shepard plays Howard Spence, a seemingly has-been movie actor, though twentysomething women still recognize him when he walks into a casino. Howard decides he's had enough of the movie business and abruptly flees the set of his latest Western in the Utah desert. He trades his horse and boots for a lowly ranchhand's shirt and vest, rents a car and takes off for the state border to visit his mother (Eva Marie Saint) in Nevada. To his surprise, she clues him in on the fact he fathered a son many years ago, so he sets off to find him.

Howard is a playboy and carefree spirit by nature, but his motivations for anything are never made clear. Does he feel lost? Has he hit a mid-life crisis? I'm not sure; he just seems to act on impulse. But some inkling of incitation would have helped because I found myself at a loss when I wondered why I was supposed to care about Howard or his journey. He's not terribly interesting; the people he sees and the places he stops are little more than incidental; and Shepard, as Howard, didn't provoke enough wonder or sympathy for me to empathize with his character. Howard doesn't seem to really care (or not care for that matter) about finding his son. He's apathetic about so many things that I felt the same way about the movie.

The subplots and supporting characters work better. Howard was under contract to finish shooting the movie and the studio insured the production for over 30 million dollars. That sends a quirky little man named Sutter (Tim Roth) to track him down. Sutter is not exactly a detective or a lawyer. He just works by finding people. We also meet Sky, played by the ever-sweet Sarah Polley. Sky carries her late mother's ashes around and when she spots Howard in a diner, she thinks he might be her father too.

In the remote town of Butte, Montana, Howard reunites with Doreen (Jessica Lange), his old flame and the mother of his son. Doreen still loves Howard even though she doesn't want to admit it. Lange's scenes are insightful and give the movie some much-needed energy. She reminds us of her range when she has to show off two heightened forms of emotion in two completely different tones. In one, she's screaming passionately at Howard. In the other, she's explaining the difference between three different kinds of breakfast potatoes.

But Howard's encounter with his son Earl (Gabriel Mann) is a big disappointment. Mann is not much of an actor, at least not here. His delivery when he confronts his long lost father feels over-the-top and awkward. Before Howard and Earl part ways, Sky gives a heartfelt speech about her feelings towards this stranger. It's touching but incredulous. Alas, Howard's travels, for us, become nugatory and unsatisfactory. I walked away not knowing or caring much about the people or events.

Last year, Bill Murray starred in "Broken Flowers," a tender and quiet film with similar themes of seeking lost family and love, which, coincidentally, also featured Jessica Lange. And Tommy Lee Jones' "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" told the story of one man's loyalty to his dead friend that also dissected small-town life. These are better films, and while Shepard and Wenders attempt to generate their same effects of alienation and desolation, they hardly succeed.