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DON'T COME KNOCKING Send This Review to a Friend
Sam Shepard’s face conveys a world-weariness central to the character he plays and the plot of the offbeat effort “Don’t Come Knocking,” directed by Wim Wenders from a screenplay by Shepard based on a story by both. The result is an odd mixture, a film with arresting imagery and interesting acting, but with situations that seem far-fetched even if basically possible and an ending that fails to satisfy.
Shepard plays Howard Spence, a once famous Western movie star who has been living a life of booze, drugs, women and an uncontrollable temper. Things come to a head and he takes off on a horse in the middle of a film shoot and disappears. He comes home to his mom (Eva Marie Saint), whom he has rarely visited, and when she tells him she had heard from the woman with whom he had a son, he becomes intrigued and heads for Butte, Montana, to see what he left behind.
There he finds Doreen, played by Jessica Lange with a feisty attitude that reflects amazement that Howard thinks he can just show up and expect a civil response after being gone some 20 years. Howard finds his son Earl (Gabriel Mann), who is a musician and as screwed up as his estranged dad. Earl wants no part of Howard, yet he is obviously aching from not having had a father in his life. Hanging around with an urn containing her mother’s ashes is Sky (Sarah Polly), who is Howard’s daughter from another quickie romance. Fairuza Balk plays Amber, Earl’s abused and wacky girlfriend, and Tim Roth gives a restrained performance as Sutter, who is tracking down Howard to make sure he finishes the film to which he is committed.
There is obviously a lot of baggage in the wake of Howard’s misspent life. That makes the story interesting, but trying to pull it all together turns rather nutty and the ending is not a bit convincing. As director, Wenders manages to capture the Montana ambiance needed, and it is always interesting to see one of his films, this example an independent-type effort that revels in being idiosyncratic. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
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