In the road-trip saga "Don't Come Knocking," getting there is more than half the fun — it's most of the fun in a movie that runs out of gas just when it should be shifting into high gear. The second collaboration between director Wim Wenders and writer-actor Sam Shepard (after 1984's "Paris, Texas"), it centers on fading movie star Howard Spence (Shepard), who saddles up a horse, gallops off the set of his latest Old West flick and escapes into the modern true West. You know, the one with rusted trucks, broken-down trailer homes and satellite dishes as common as tumbleweeds. Read the full review
Howard Spence's fame has enabled him to become the man he is today — a spoiled movie star with a checkered past of drinking and carousing. One day, on a mean drunk, he disappears from a film shoot and takes a crazy road trip as far as Butte, Montana, the last place he remembers being happy. Here, he finds the scattered remains of a family life that could have been.
Director: Wim Wenders
Starring: Fairuza Balk, Eva Marie Saint, Mike Butters, Sam Shepard, Jessica Lange
Run time: 110 minutes
Release date: March 17, 2006
Rating: R for language and brief nudity.
See showtimes
Meet the director
German-born director Wim Wenders discusses the lonesome wanderers who populate his films.
On the web
Official movie site
View the trailer
Trailers require
Quicktime
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: B-
"The movie always threatens to have something interesting to say (like many of Shepard's plays) about the frayed but unbreakable bond between children and their fathers. It just never quite says it."
Austin American-Statesman: 4 of 5 stars
"Wenders and Shepard have created a daring and provocative film about American myth, American truth, American hope and American failure in this very uncertain time."
The Palm Beach Post: B
"Don't Come Knocking is quintessential Shepard, a quietly simmering family drama defined by images of The West — both Old and New."
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