Land of Plenty (2004)

64% of critics liked it
(25 reviews)
63% of users liked it
(2,141 ratings)

Wim Wenders drama Land of Plenty stars John Diehl and Michelle Williams as two very different people who are brought together for an unconventional road trip. The film takes place after September 11, 2001, and the main characters are dealing with their grief in very different ways. Paul (Diehl)… More Wim Wenders drama Land of Plenty stars John Diehl and Michelle Williams as two very different people who are brought together for an unconventional road trip. The film takes place after September 11, 2001, and the main characters are dealing with their grief in very different ways. Paul (Diehl) keeps his paranoid eye on the lookout for terrorists wherever he goes. His niece Lana, Williams) does charity work for the indigent. After a young Muslim is shot dead, the uncle and niece travel together - her to bring the body back to the family, he to wipe out the terrorists he is convinced the young man worked with. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 2 hr. 3 min.
Directed By: Wim Wenders
Written By: Scott Derrickson, Michael Meredith, Wim Wenders
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Jan 1, 2004 Wide
On DVD: Oct 10, 2006
Studio: IFC Films

Critic Reviews

Leslie Felperin, Variety
Wim Wenders' first fiction featurefeature since 2000's The Million Dollar Hotel, rocky but respectable Land of Plenty proves the helmer often does better with low budgets, fast schedules and young collaborators.
Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
Hampered by an ending that overreaches needlessly, the film is nevertheless worthy and unmistakably the effort of an enduringly distinctive and important filmmaker.
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News
Wenders handles America's physical landscape with characteristic clarity. But he never gets a handle on the trickier political terrain and so, like Uncle Paul, ends up chasing too many roads to nowhere.
V.A. Musetto, New York Post
Land of Plenty has a few too many coincidences and tends to be sugary, but it has an important precautionary message in this age of terror.
A.O. Scott, New York Times
Taking up the divided, anxious state of post-9/11 American life, Wim Wenders's new film is like a clumsy, well-meaning intervention in a family quarrel.
Michael Atkinson, Village Voice
With the film's coda set at ground zero, Wenders has never seemed more of a tourist.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
About as unconvincing as any Hollywood film.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
Deftly balances its viewpoints and pulls them off with a minimum of outrage or sermonizing.
Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com
not exactly lazy filmmaking, but it's hard to give it your complete attention
Sean Axmaker, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Only when the lessons end and characters become simply individuals trying to connect and communicate in the desolate landscape of a forgotten America does the film resonate.
Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times
It casts a spell of compassionate humanity with a gently healing effect.
Jeff Vice, Deseret News, Salt Lake City
There are some fine performances, as well as a surprising, well-earned and emotional pay-off that comes at the end.
Sean Means, Salt Lake Tribune
These intriguing characters and some gorgeous (for digital video) footage keep you involved, even as the plot meanders.
Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly
The flawed, fascinating Land of Plenty is easily Wenders' most vital work in more than a decade.
Eric Monder, Film Journal International
Land of Plenty isn't for everyone, but patient viewers will be rewarded with a poignant look at life in America today.
Marcy Dermansky, About.com
Michelle William's warm, emphathic presence made Wim Wenders' new 9/11 film into a truly watchable film.
Ken Fox, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Works best as an illustration of the way conspiracy theories serve to weave threads of order, however fantastic, during moments of incomprehensible upheaval.
Joshua Tanzer, Offoffoff
A caricature that indicts, if not our actual country, then a rather similar country that an outsider imagines America to be.
Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
Wenders is content wandering the American heartland with his iPod and camera-as-divining-rod, looking for a thematic purpose to anchor his groggy, music-infused aesthetic.
Josh Bell, Las Vegas Weekly
Wenders spends too much time with the uninteresting murder-mystery, and by the time he gets around to the truly insightful, moving dialogue, it's too little, too late.