I actually considered watching this yesterday, mainly because what I knew of its subject matter seemed likely to be appropriate to the day/'occasion', but the timings weren't right; if I'd known that the main character was named Howard, I might well have made an effort to reorganise things so that I did experience it on Saturday; in any case, though, I caught it this afternoon, having found myself in Carlton with a couple of hours to spare.
What I (thought I) knew about Don't Come Knocking before I saw it was this: it's the new Wim Wenders, it's a western of sorts (complete with music by T Bone Burnett), and its story involves an aging movie star riding off the set of his current film and returning to his old home town where he is confronted with the possibility of making peace with some old demons, most particularly in the form of his family (I'd also picked up the identities of the main members of the cast). As it turns out, while he (Howard) does indeed first ride, then drive, back to his mother's, she is no longer on the old ranch but now lives in small town Nevada - and from there he spins on to Montana, where his son (with whom he's had no contact, and of whose existence he may not have known - I wasn't sure) and the mother of that child, an old flame, live...but, that minor detail aside, what I was expecting was largely what I got...storywise, it has some obvious similarities to Broken Flowers, and while its underlying concerns are quite different, it shares with that film a distinctive flavour and poetry that I can only describe as 'cinematic'.
The film looks great - the myth of the American west has always loomed large for me, and this has only increased with my falling into the music which goes with those imaginative landscapes over the last 18 months or so, and Wenders doesn't stint on the panoramic vistas and the sudden, striking beauty (whether widescreen or more intimate). The casting and actors are a continuing highlight here: I'm not familiar with Sam Shepard (though the name is very familiar), but he holds it all together as the rugged, weatherbeaten cowboy at the centre of things and is unobtrusively good; the iconic status of Eva Marie Saint as his mother (I had no idea that she was even still alive, never mind acting) works for the part and she acquits herself well; Gabriel Mann (another unfamiliar figure), as Earl, Howard's skinny, angry, rock 'n' country music-singing son, is very impressive; Jessica Lange does another turn as the woman from the past knocked around by life, now aged but getting by, and does so with aplomb; and Sarah Polley fits right in in a context which I would never have thought would work for her...also, there's Fairuza Balk, her character seemingly transplanted straight from all the 90s alterna-chick roles that I knew her for back in the day, but also making it work; and Tim Roth in a queer turn as the company man sent to bring Howard back, far short of villainy nor rendered with any particular sympathetic features and nonetheless interesting.
Some nice cinematographic/directorial touches, too - the western elements, say (the stunning opening; the circling effect of the cameras at times; the ironic but still somehow genuinely appropriate modern tumbleweed-surrogate of the cardboard box blowing through the street), and some of the lighting (the glow which often surrounds Sky, Sarah Polley's character, for example) - and there are some killer sequences (the confrontation between Earl and his mother, Doreen (Lange), is fiercely affecting, and the quasi-montage depicting Howard's night on the sofa in the street is excellent, too - and there are others), as well as a well-pitched and uplifting ending. Overall, I think that Don't Come Knocking has its own particular rhythm, and one really needs to allow it to operate on its own terms for the film to work - it certainly won't be for everyone. But, evidently, it worked for me, and while I can't quite pin down how it works, I thought the film very rich and, by its end, satisfying in a way which feels rather profound.
* * *
Post-script: I thought I recognised the voice of the female vocalist on the theme song which plays during the film, but couldn't work it out - surprised and pleased to learn from the closing credits that it was Andrea Corr (the male vocalist being Bono, who I would've expected to be more distinctive but hadn't rung any bells at all at the time).
