The Accidental Husband (2008)

.
"Don't settle for a boyfriend when you can demand a manfriend."
R = Is he responsible?
E = Is he your equal?
A = Is he an adult?
L = Is he loving?
Relationship therapist Emma Lloyd (Uma Thurman) has always been sensible and had the right career and fiancé, Richard (Colin Firth). But when she discovers that she is already married to another man and Emma finally meets her "accidental husband," she reexamines her decisions and her impending marriage.

Also appearing are Sofia (Justina Machado) and fireman Patrick Sullivan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as an engaged couple whose plans were thwarted by advice Sofia got from Emma on Emma's radio call-in show. Sam Shepard appears as Emma's father; Ajay Naidu plays Patrick's best friend. Isabella Rossellini and Keir Dullea also appear.

Some great shots of NYC.

Directed by Griffin Dunne.

Run time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Rated PG-13

My personal rating: B-

Don't Come Knocking (2005)

.
"Where is Howard? Who is Howard? He's long gone, he's long gone." Howard Spence (Sam Shepard) is a washed up cowboy actor who probably has been given his last chance to shape up and fly right in a film. But he blows it. Big time. He disappears from the set. The director (George Kennedy) is instructed to continue shooting around Howard's scenes. The film's bonding company sends Sutter (Tim Roth) to locate Howard, drag him back to the set, and make him complete his contractural agreement.

Howard has wandered off with purpose, first to see his mother (Eva Marie Saint) who he's not been in contact with for many, many years, then to locate his old girlfriend (Jessica Lange), and then to find his son Earl (Gabriel Mann). Along the way he connects with a young woman named Sky (Sarah Polley) who is trying to decide what to do with her mother's ashes.

Also appearing in the cast in small roles are James Roday, Julia Sweeney, Tim Matheson, James Gammon, and Fairuza Balk.

All star cast but pretty much a wasted effort. Story was a missed opportunity. I didn't care enough about the characters to make this store work for me. But the music was interesting.

Story by Sam Shepard and Wim Wenders; screenplay by Sam Shepard; directed by Wim Wenders.

Run time: 2 hours, 2 minutes

Rated R for language and brief nudity.

My personal rating: C

All the Pretty Horses (2000)

.
"I guess country lasts forever. People ain’t but for a little while."
All John Grady Cole (Matt Damon) ever wanted to do was ranch on his grandfather’s land in west Texas. But his father had signed over the future of the land to his ex in the divorce so when the grandfather died, John’s mother sold the land leaving John quite devastated.

John sets off with his friend Lacey Rawlins (Henry Thomas) set off for Mexico. Early in the journey, they hook up with young Jimmy Blevins (Lucas Black), a runaway who ends up going his own way.

ucas BlackJohn and Lacey find work on one of the last great ranches in Mexico, the 27,000 acres owned by Hector de la Rocha y Villareal (Rubén Blades). John wants to prove their worth by breaking 16 wild mustangs in four days –- a task accomplished with all the ranch hands and their families looking on and which impressed Hector. John is given the job of working with Hector on the program to breed fine Mustang mares to the new Thoroughbred stallion Hector has just purchased.

In the process, a romance blossoms between John and Hector’s daughter Alejandra (Penélope Cruz) but Hector’s sister Doña Alfonsa (Miriam Colón) does not approve. Alejandra is sent to live with her mother and John and Lacey are arrested and sent back to a little town north of the ranch. When the are thrown in the jail there, they find young Jimmy who is charged with three murders and apparently he’d implicated John and Lacey.

Also appearing are Sam Shepard as the lawyer who explains to John how the sale of the grandfather’s land can’t be blocked; Bruce Dern as the judge.

Beautiful cinematography in a beautiful land. Heartfelt music including Marty Stuart’s touching “Far Away.” And love those horses!

Based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy. Directed by Billy Bob Thornton.

Run time: 1 hour, 54 minutes

Rated PG-13 for violence and some sexuality.

My personal rating: B+

Country (1984)

. “We’re caught in the middle of something we can’t control.”

An exploration of the farm crisis in America focuses on the Ivy family of Blackhawk County, Iowa.

Jewell and Gil Ivy (Jessica Lange, Sam Shepard) have worked the corn and livestock farm where her family has lived for generations. Her father Otis (Wilford Brimley) and their teenage son Carlisle (Levi L. Knebel) work hard with Jewell and Gil to make a place for them and the Ivy’s two young daughters.

But the FHA is now calling in the loans and demanding full payment within 30 days. It’s seriously affecting the Ivys, who owe nearly $100K, and many of their friends.

Also in the cast are Jim Haynie, Sandra Seacat, and Jim Ostercamp as the neighbors, the Brewers; Matt Clark as the heartsick local FHA officer; and Alex Harvey as the hardened bureaucrat.

Directed by Richard Pearce.

Run time: 1 hour, 50 minutes

Rated PG.

My personal rating: B

Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)

"It takes a rare thing, a turning point, to free oneself from any obsession. Be it prejudice or hate, or, even love."

Sheriff Art Moran (Richard Jenkins) has a murder on his hands. The body of fisherman Carl Heine (Daniel von Bargen) was brought up tangled in his own nets off of the coast of Washington state. The coroner (Max Wright) is uncertain of the exact cause of death but there is an implication of murder and in the post-WWII anti-Japanese era, Kazuo Miyamoto (Rick Yune) is charged with the murder of Heine and goes to trial.

The backstory, told in flashbacks, reveals that while Miyamoto was serving in the Army in Germany, his family and all the Japanese-American families on the West Coast were sent to detention camps in an effort to safeguard the USA from the Japanese.

Newspaper owner and editor Arthur Chambers (Sam Shepard) opposed the transfer of these people and the assumption of their guilt without knowing that his own son Ishmael Chambers (played as an adult by Ethan Hawke) has loved Hatsue (played as an adult by Youki Kudoh), who later turned out to be the wife of the accused Kazuo.

At the time of Heine's death some years later, Ishmael is an adult and reporter for the town newspaper. He covers the trial but also does a lot of investigation on his own.

What really happened on that fateful night that a fisherman died?

Others in the superb cast include Max von Sydow as the defense attorney, James Cromwell as the judge, James Rebhorn as the prosecuting attorney, plus Arija Bareikis and Celia Weston as Heine's family.

Intense and powerful. Haunting music.

Based on a novel by David Guterson. Directed by Scott Hicks.

Run time: 2 hours, 7 minutes

Rated PG-13 for disturbing images, sensuality and brief strong language.

My personal rating: B+