Land of Plenty Movie Review

Wim Wenders' sense of subtlety and grace started to decline somewhere in the '90s, and in post-9/11 he's clearly lost it altogether. Land of Plenty is his meditation on the Big Event (and I guess at this point we should assume that every film director will eventually make one... come on Spielberg, what's holding you back?). Kudos for having the stones to have the movie take place all the way across the country in L.A., but could the story be more overbearing?

John Diehl plays a Vietnam vet who spends his days in a van keeping tabs on suspicious personages, particularly those with turbans. He's constantly narrating the action into a tape recorder, and he even has a flunky willing to help him "analyze these chemicals by oh-nine-hundred." This is contrasted with his long-lost niece (Michelle Williams), a mopey girl who's all too happy to spend all day working in a soup kitchen. The digital video looks suitably present and "real," but Wenders' wandering sentiments fail to add anything new to what has become a mountain of conversation on the New Paranoia and What the Hell Are We Supposed To Do Now? It's not exactly lazy filmmaking, but it's hard to give it your complete attention.

The DVD includes commentary from Wenders and eight deleted scenes.