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Sam Shepard reins in the meandering 'Don't Come Knocking'

The problem with Western movie star Howard Spence is that he has spent too much time in the saddle, in front of a camera, and now he believes that he really is a cowboy. Known for being difficult and unpredictable, Howard (a weathered Sam Shepard) walks off the set of his latest picture one day, mounts a horse and heads farther west, hoping to lasso his past.

Sony Pictures Classics 'Don't Come Knocking' B The verdict: Shepard wrote and stars in this meandering, yet quietly effective New West family drama. 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 Rate 'Don't Come Knocking'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

In Don't Come Knocking, Shepard — who also wrote the screenplay — reunites with director Wim Wenders, with whom he made the rugged, mythic Paris, Texas two decades earlier. This latest collaboration is a less substantial film, but one that has evocative resonances of regret and reconnection. If the movie also contains moments that stretch credibility, they pale compared to some of the symbolic touches Shepard includes in his stage plays.

Whether or not he is drawing on his own experience, Shepard knows what it is to be bored and restless on a movie set. So off Howard heads, first to Nevada to reunite with a mother (Eva Marie Saint) he has not seen in 30 years, then on to Montana where he once had an affair with a woman named Doreen (Jessica Lange) that produced a now grown son Howard never knew about. Meanwhile, like a bounty hunter of the Old West, an insurance investigator (Tim Roth) sets out on Howard's trail, determined to bring him back to complete his movie.

Howard arrives at his mother's house and she takes him in as if the intervening years had never happened. She has been following his career from a distance, as her scrapbook of his marital failures, drug and alcohol bouts and run-ins with the law attest. Howard never really grew up, a condition that stardom allows and perhaps encourages.

Following a nighttime visit to a nearby casino, where we catch a glimpse of Howard's immaturity in action, Saint casually mentions once getting a phone call from a woman who claimed to be the mother of his child. So Howard drives off to Butte and finds Doreen, pretty much where he left her decades earlier, running a saloon where her son Earl is an aspiring folk singer.

Earl refuses to acknowledge Howard, or even concede that he has ever heard of the celebrated movie star. Nevertheless, his temper and boorishness leaves little doubt about the young man's paternity. In one of those theatrical credibility-stretchers, Earl petulantly tosses most of his possessions out his apartment window, where the things sit in the middle of the street for days.

The female characters are far more sympathetic, including Doreen, who finds Howard's suggestion that they get back together laughable. Also showing up in Butte is a strange young woman (the serenely intriguing Sarah Polley), toting the ashes of her mother and, yes, a secret of her own.

You can reject any or all of this and still be drawn to the chemistry between Shepard and his real-life partner Lange, who manage to generate sparks even in this slow-paced, disjointed film. Neither really says much, but she gets to flare up at him with her pent-up resentments.

Don't Come Knocking is quintessential Shepard, a quietly simmering family drama defined by images of The West — both Old and New. He teams well with Wenders, who is content to let the human drama play itself out in the shapeless, rambling way that life happens.