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Reviews
Don't Come Knocking (2005)
mediocre and forgettable in spite of the talent pooled
Main story premise is never developed in an interesting way. Main character Howard's motivation to leave B-movie and see his mother all of a sudden remains a mystery throughout the picture, as does virtually all of his behavior. This quickly becomes tedious to watch. The search for him by Mr Sutter never gives the story any tension, does not engage the audience, and only serves to give the picture an ending. The Sutter character is not fleshed out and his comic moments (as when ordering in the diner) fall flat and seem out of place. Dialogue overall is tepid, never sparkles, not a single line can be remembered. Two speeches stand out a little: Doreen's (finally) giving Howard the lowdown on his behavior and Sky's speech at the very end, but it is all too little. Ending (Howard back to his B-picture and his kids happily singing in his car) suggests some sort of resolution but does not fit to what went before at all and consequently feels tacked on. Wender's love for Americana results in some beautiful shots of scenery but this has been done before and after all this is not a documentary. Best performance is by Lange, weakest by Mann, but he is given the most common-place dialog and behavior of all characters. I pity in particular the actress who played Earl's girlfriend: she was given such a cliché character (air-headed groupie) and yet she makes the best of it and is the only one to exude any warmth. This film really disappointed me in light of all the talent involved.
Guernsey (2005)
To be avoided
This film uses all art-house clichés (slow pace, long static shots, minimal amount of dialog) to try to hide the fact that there really is nothing worth watching here: There is no plot to speak of, the characters are dreary (female lead) or cliché (Tersteeghe's character), and they do not ever talk to each other about anything that concerns their rather uneventful lives. The film is centered around a woman who finds out about her husbands adultery. Instead of confronting him, she half-heartedly takes revenge by committing adultery herself. After a fight and a reconciliation with her sister - who knew about the adultery without telling her - she asks her husband to stop cheating on her. They seem to be re-united as a family. Two other story lines - the planned move of the woman's elderly father with his young wife to Guernsey and the rivalry with the woman's sister - do not offer any interesting developments. The suicide of a colleague of the woman that seems to set off events in the film is not a subject in itself. For 2005 - or any other year for that matter - this is not enough to make an interesting film.
Moreover, what little possibilities for dramatic development there are in the script are not used or are consciously avoided, as when both the woman and her sister mark a particular piece of furniture from their fathers house which is going to be sold because of his planned move. Both sisters want this particular piece and given their rivalry in the past - over much more important things than furniture: men - this could in theory lead to a confrontation. Or the matter could be resolved by one sister giving way to the other. Either way, this would not be a very interesting or original development of the story but at least it would constitute some development. The film clearly sets this situation up (with both sisters looking intently at each other during the marking and one sister having mentioned she does not want to draw straws) but it cheats us out of any resolution: the scene simply ends and how this - in itself rather dreary and materialistic - issue is solved, is not shown.
Although almost completely absent, the dialog that is in the film is excruciatingly flat and tepid. For example, when during a visit to Guernsey, the 2 sisters address their rivalry it is in a three line dialog that has a childish "yes it is - no it isn't" ring to it. The fight and reconciliation scene with the 2 sisters is completely without dialog - giving a highly artificial, overly stylised and unrealistic impression and considerably reducing its impact. The way the woman finally - finally! - addresses her husbands adultery in a single line of dialog has to be seen to be believed - and is at the same time completely unbelievable. The husband does not seem to have any noticeable reaction or if he has any, it is not shown. The woman does not mention her own adultery to her husband. The scene showing the woman, husband and their young son asleep on an airliner, watched by the sister is possibly meant as a happy end, but the way the characters addressed the issues of their lives in what went before makes this unlikely.
Because of its slow pace, uninteresting story, leaden direction and absurd lack of dialog, I found this film an example of everything that can be wrong with an art-house movie and a complete waste of time.