Review: Land of Plenty (C-)

Review: Land of Plenty (C-)
Directed by Wim Wenders
Starring John Diehl, Michelle Williams, Richard Edson
MPAA: UR
Grade: C-

Review by Mark Focus

Yawn. In the words of Deniro's character in Jackie Brown, What happened to Wim Wenders? He used to be be beautiful. Land of Plenty is slow moving (a Wenders trademark) but its also just not that interesting. In other words, its boring. But they pay me to watch and review these things, so here goes.

Land of Plenty is really all about how people look at the world differently after 9/11. But the two main characters are biased from their past experiences, and they don't really have much in common with average Americans. So there is the relevance issue as well. Anyway, John Diehl from "The Shield" stars as a paranoid USASF agent that is searching for clues of possible terrorist activity. He seems to be working on his own and doesn't really seem to have all his marbles. His niece (Lana, played by Michelle Williams) is back from Palestine, so obviously she has her own bias about the world post 9/11. She's searching for Paul, as he is her only living relative.

My issues with Land of Plenty are this: if you are going to do a slow moving film, try using top of the line actors. It makes things a lot more interesting. Otherwise it just gets.. boring. Where's Harry Dean Stanton when Wim needs him? This is a yawner and I can't really recommend it for anyone, even if you did like Wings of Desire (a classic) or Buena Vista Social Club (not bad).