gradyharp LAND OF PLENTY is nowhere near as powerful a title for this brilliant Wim Wenders film as the original working title, ANGST AND ALIENATION IN America. This is another Wim Wenders wonder of film-making, a quiet little powerhouse of a movie that should be required viewing for all of us. Wenders wrote this moving piece with assistance from Scott Derrickson and Michael Meredith and directs a sterling cast in an exploration of the American psyche post 9/11, and few writer/directors could have keener insight into the state of mind of a country at odds with itself and the rest of the world.Lana (Michelle Williams) is flying back to the US after a two-year stay on the West Bank. She is the daughter of missionaries, having lived her life in Africa and other missionary fields and she is flying home after her mother's death to deliver a letter to her uncle Paul (John Diehl), a damaged Vietnam vet who has cut himself off from his family and the rest of life and in response to 9/11, his mind being obsessed with tracking Sleeper Cells to destroy terrorists in his own homemade surveillance van. Upon arriving in Los Angeles, Lana is met by Henry (Wendell Pierce) who is a pastor who runs a mission for the homeless of Los Angeles and provides Lana with a bleak room and a job in the kitchen of the mission. Lana is full of praise for God for all things, the optimistic evangelical girl who fails to recognize evil. One member of the mission bunkhouse is a Pakistani Hassan (Shaun Toub) whose garments and fixation on boxes of Borax alerts Paul to his possible involvement as a terrorist.Lana contacts Paul, desires to connect with him, but Paul is aloof, obsessed with his 'mission' to ferret out terrorists. When Hassan is the victim of a drive-by shooting Lana is devastated at the loss of a human being while Paul is convinced Hassan was hit by a larger organization. Paul with his colleague Jimmy (Richard Edson) discover Hassan has a brother who lives in Trona (outside of Death Valley). Together Lana and Paul transport the corpse of Hassan to his brother Youssef (Bernard White) who lives in a hut in Trona: Lana is committed to doing the right thing, Paul sees an entry into more evidence for evil to quash. While Lana is warmly entertained by Youssef, Paul investigates the town and finds that the Borax boxes of Hassan's business were innocent means of washing carpets imported from Pakistan. The coming together of Youssef, Lana, and Paul finally achieves meaning when Paul reads the letter from his sister, Lana's mother, who somehow manages to erase all lines of prejudice, bigotry, religious differences, misunderstanding - finally giving breathing room to the damaged souls of the brotherhood of man the three represent.Wenders manages to bathe his story in the light of reality yet maintain an unprejudiced stance in moving his characters through their paths of revelation. The camera wanders a bit, the music blends perhaps too heavily, and the pieces of the puzzle don't always fit together - much like life doesn't always fall into place the way we expect. But there is much to learn from Wenders' wisdom and with the aid of perfect performances from Michelle Williams, John Diehl, and Wendell Pierce he has created an indelible work. A fine film for us all to ponder. Grady Harp

D A Interesting mixture of character study, suspense, U.S. sociology, and comedy thrown together competently in a way only Wim Wenders can somehow sustain. Flawed though it may be, Land of Plenty is still the most interesting piece of post-9/11 fiction I have yet to see. Exactly one year after that fateful day, across the other side of the country, two family members will connect in a most bizarre yet relevant manner, while each one deals with aftermath in their respective ways. Filmed one year earlier then, although released to DVD a few months after, Wenders offers the antithesis to his quirky, subtle, arty melodrama "Don't Come Knockin", defying most of his usual style until the last act of the story. Guided by time honored and often neglected traditions of a strong commitment to singularly personified characters, viewers are led on an insiders journey through a one of a kind portrait, solidified by unknown but seasoned actor John Diehl as the gung-ho patriot veteran. Gently and less memorable in walks Michelle Williams's role to sprinkle some much needed humanity and contrast to the crazed antics. Much of the darker urgency in the first half eventually subsides into more familiar motifs, opening up the gritty feel into lighter fare. Satisfying and memorable in a brilliant climax, the overall pace from bleak drama to typical Wenders soulful dramedy does lessen the impact, no more as when the conveniently written final antidote improperly bids these characters adieu. With an open mind and a slight suspension of disbelief intact, Land of Plenty still offers engaging and thought provoking material while transforming itself into something less heavy in the process.

Harry T. Yung The alternative angle is looking at this movie as a study of the two main characters and their interaction. The other, obvious angle of a post-911 political statement has provoked heated exchanges in the IMDb comments, to which I would just quote the winner of the recently voted top 100 movie quotes.Despite the initial impression created by the movie makers, there isn't really that much of a story. What we have instead in the convergence (not collision) of two sharply polarized characters. 20-year-old Lana who returns to her native United States after a life in Israel since early childhood is as close to an angel as you can get. Her uncle (mother's brother) Paul, a Vietnam veteran and Agent Orange victim is not the devil. He is not even the average lunatic war hawk you might expect. For someone with his background, he appears to be in his full senses even in the paranoid-ridden surveillance exercise that has consumed his every waking (and sometimes even sleeping) thought. The interaction between these two characters and how they affect each others' thinking is the soul of the movie, the way I choose to watch it. Michelle Williams and John Diehl are marvelous.

DICK STEEL This is my maiden foray into the Singapore International Film Festival (SIFF), and my first review of a film featured in the SIFF.The film tells a story of Lana, who is going to LA after her mother passed away, in search of her uncle. She has been travelling the world with her missionary father, and her last place of stay had been Tel Aviv. While we are shown the glistening skyline of LA, we are soon shown the poverty zone, and how Lana feels about leaving one warzone into another, that the war against poverty is not so much different from the world she had left.Her uncle Paul, a Vietnam war veteran exposed to the infamous Agent Orange, is now a self-possessed vigilante, playing his overly zealous part in homeland security, rigging his van into a one-stop travelling security surveillance van. (Heck, even his handphone ringtone is the national anthem!) He randomly tails people deemed suspicious to him, and things get interesting when a man of Arab descent is spotted by him buying boxes of chemicals (the irony of making a dirty bomb from a cleaning agent) and later on, being gunned down by unknown suspects.To reach out to Paul, Lana had to play along at times, to get Paul to open up to her, as their initial meeting isn't really cordial, and it is of course difficult to strike up family conversation with relatives you have hardly seen all this while. But things take a turn when Paul finally wakes up to reality, and his futile investigative effort all comes crashing down for him.While there is little drastic character development, it is the subtle character representation that is key in this film. Paul represents the "ra-ra America", those who are bent on protecting the homeland at all costs, those who are inept in collecting facts (yeah, there's a dumpster diving scene which rocked) and making decisions based on faulty intelligence. Lana, on the other hand, represents the rest of the world. The compassionate world, reaching out to diversity and trying their best in understanding this difference. It is no surprise that the filmmakers showcase the different attitudes that these 2 characters exude towards a Pakistani whom they meet towards the end.Good music is peppered throughout the movie, and I always appreciate films that introduce appropriate tunes for each scene that punctuates the entire atmosphere beautifully (Think Cameron Crowe movies). And one poignant line in the film stuck to me as the film begins in LA and ends in Ground Zero, NY - if we can hear the 3000 souls asking us not to use their name in vain, as an excuse to kill more people.For those in Singapore who wish to catch this film, I don't think there is a repeat screening, so you might have to catch it on discs. And by the way, the lead actress looks like a cross between Audrey Tautou and Liv Tyler - so there.