Land of Plenty

There's a lot to be said for a film that makes profound statements about the 9/11 attacks and its effects on Vietnam vets. Most of us were probably too shocked inside our own little bubble to realize the impact these men felt when exploding planes collapsed the twin towers. But director Wim Wenders (DON'T COME KNOCKING) pulls it off thanks to a fairly good script and even better acting by lead actors John Diehl and Michelle Williams.

Never having seen Diehl in a leading role, this movie shows he's got some serious chops and can act with the best Hollywood has to offer. Equally Michelle Williams pulls off a stunningly excellent performance as the worldly but loving niece who helps Diehl discover himself all over again.

The story ...

Paul (John Diehl) is a Vietnam vet living in Los Angeles. He lives in a fantasy world all his own, believing that he's helping with national security by tracking suspicious looking people with his surveillance tricked-out van. He operates a camera that comes out of the van's sunroof and records activity around town.

Michelle (Michelle Williams, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN) is returning from Tel Aviv after years away from the States. Her mother passed away and she's trying to hook up with her last surviving relative in America: Paul. Working at a mission for the poor, she befriends many of its patrons and meets up with a withdrawn Arab-looking gentleman named Hassan (Shaun Taub, CRASH) who also happens to be one of Paul's prime suspects.

Paul witnesses Hassan hauling boxes of borax and quickly learns that it is an ingredient for certain bomb materials. On high alert, Paul records everything Hassan does. This brings him closer to his niece, Michelle. But Hassan lives on the street and is eventually shot to death right in front of Paul, making him believe that someone knocked him off for sinister reasons.

Michelle is beset with grief about Hassan's death and searches for one of his family members. Eventually finding one near Death Valley, she convinces Paul to drive her and the body to Hassan's brother for burial. Paul agrees in the hopes of gaining more information about who Hassan was and what he was up to.

As the nexus between Paul's old Vietnam life and the new one that awaits him with Michelle begins to culminate, we see him battling bad dreams of his time in Southeast Asia but being aided and comforted by Michelle and, to his surprise, by Hassan's death and Hassan's brother.

We quickly learn that Paul went down a bad trail after the 9/11 attacks, his mind sparking up old memories in order to protect itself. He lives in his van, which is his life-connection to the world now. But that will change once Michelle teaches him how to trust again.

The film is touching if sometimes a bit heavy-handed in the dialogue department. We're sometimes forcibly given rather trite information about the homeless and war, but this is easily overlooked thanks to the able acting of its two main characters.

A little disorienting at first, this movie is such a rich tapestry with several multidimensional characters that one can't be certain where it's taking us. The America never seen in American films (except by Haskell Wexler) defines post-9/11 bewilderment within the context of poverty, legitimate faith, and paranoia. A second viewing--during the director's commentary--reveals that (Leonard Maltin's review to the contrary) the narrative structure is tight.

The central male character conjures up the anomie of the leads in THE PARALLAX VIEW, TAXI DRIVER, and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. The Christian heroine is a good and decent young woman, played with freshness and sincerity and not one whiff of cynicism. The black minister, performed by one of THE WIRE's wittier regulars, offers a more true-to-life representation of black Americans' core values than almost ever reaches American TV or movie screens, and without treacle or bombastics. One regrets the absence of close-ups in the cameo by Gloria (TITANIC, INVISIBLE MAN) Stuart, but her scene is delightful.

In his commentary, Wenders repeatedly extols the use of DVD cameras that allowed him to complete 60 or 70 set-ups a day in a 16-day shoot. The cinematography (all hand-held) is astonishingly beautiful. And Wenders rightly praises his set designer who had only $20,000 to work with and yet came in under budget!

Doubtless, the German director's background affords him the distance with which to comment so cogently on America a couple of months after Bush declared the invasion of Iraq a success. With its documentary feel and non-mainstream perspective, LAND OF PLENTY will increase in value over the years, as a photo album of conditions and attitudes we can only hope will continue to heal.

Wim Wenders has long had a love affair with America. He is particularly drawn to desolate places in the west and too enamored (imo) with American pop music. I'll get the flaws off my chest right away: too much pop music, or just over-musicked, and this is my major pet peeve in movies generally. Silence can often accomplish so much more. Second flaw is that it just skirts sentimentality.

John Diehl and Michelle Williams were absolutelty wonderful. Diehl is a dead-ringer for John Sayles but I got used to it. He is a 55-ish Vietnam vet who was exposed to Agent Orange and he is still suffering from PTSD. He is obsessed with the threat of more terrorism and he is so off-the-wall sometimes it is funny but he has no notion of how he must seem to others and he has little humor inside him. He is a patriot to his bones and drives around in his home-made detection and surveillance van aided by his somewhat goofy sidekick Richard Edson (who I like so much and am pleased he is in the movie).

Diehl is on the lookout for anything odd or untoward that might in any realm of rational thought possibly be a threat to America. He notices an Arab carrying boxes of Borax and he is hot on a trail that he thinks will lead him to a terrorist cell.

Enter his niece, Michelle Williams, who has just returned to the US after living in Israel and being involved with both Israelis and Palestinians. She has lived most of her life in Africa with her missionary parents. Diehl is her only living relative and she searches and finds him. This is the first time I have seen a deeply Christian person depicted in film who is credible and believable and doesn't make me want to puke (exceptions that come to mind are Susan Sarandon in Dead Man Walking and Karl Malden in On the Waterfront). She has a radiance that stops a few degrees short of boring and trite--so she nails the role and is very touching.

The Arab man is killed in a drive-by shooting (or was it? was it something more sinister?) and Michelle and her uncle bring the man's body to his only relative who Michelle has traced. Michelle and her uncle have totally different agendas and the resolution is very satisfying.

I didn't watch the movie with Wenders' voice-over commentary but I did watch The Making Of and Wenders has insightful and worthy things to say about America, its position in the world in the wake of 9/11 and what he was hoping to accomplish in this movie. Really liked it a lot despite its flaws.

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