Land of Plenty (2004)

62% of critics liked it
(26 reviews)
62% of users liked it
(2,195 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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Directed By: Wim Wenders
Written By: Scott Derrickson, Michael Meredith, Wim Wenders
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Jan 1, 2004 Wide
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.
Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times
It casts a spell of compassionate humanity with a gently healing effect.
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.
Jason Gorber, Film Scouts
Major tragedy that September 11th has gone from horrifying to exploited... to, now, really freakin' boring German films about deserts and campervans.
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 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.

Read all 19 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Leigh R

Very well done movie about post 9/11.
Walter M

Upon her arrival back in the United States, Lana(Michelle Williams) is met at the airport by Henry(Wendell Pierce), the pastor at the homeless mission she is volunteering to work at. They have their work cut out for them as the vast seas of homeless in Los Angeles almost make her… More
Upon her arrival back in the United States, Lana(Michelle Williams) is met at the airport by Henry(Wendell Pierce), the pastor at the homeless mission she is volunteering to work at. They have their work cut out for them as the vast seas of homeless in Los Angeles almost make her nostalgic for the time she spent on the West Bank. Still, she has a personal mission in delivering an envelope to her uncle Paul(John Diehl) whose mission is to make the United States safe for right wing radio talk shows while stalking Hassan(Shaun Toub) on his collections of Borax. I appreciate the fact that "Land of Plenty" takes notice of how large a problem hunger is in the United States but not so much that I enjoyed being lectured about it in totally ponderous fashion instead of coming up with a solid story to tell. Nor could the movie make any valid suggestions or even any kind of connection between guns and butter in wartime, as most of the post-9/11 paranoia is now thankfully dated. Wendell Pierce and Michelle Williams can only do so much with so little, as the movie otherwise lets John Diehl, an otherwise fine character actor, free rein to go over the top in playing a stereotypical character, thereby sucking all of the oxygen out of the room.

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Cast

Michelle Williams
as Lana
John Diehl
as Paul
Shaun Toub
as Hassan
Wendell Pierce
as Henry
Richard Edson
as Jimmy
Burt Young
as Sherman
Bernard White
as Youssef
Gloria Stuart
as Old Lady
Jeris Poindexter
Rhonda Stubbins White
Yuri Elvin

See more (11)

Land of Plenty (2004)

Critic Reviews

Featured Audience Ratings

Leigh R

Walter M

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