PARIS, TEXAS (1984)

While not immune to the usual post-passing downturn in critical reputation, this Sam Shepard item (self-adapting his own story) remains a loving/haunted human comedy under director Wim Wenders’ patient hand and knack of finding just the right location.  Especially as shot by Robby Müller, perfect down to the grain in the film stock.  No surprise to see Shepard with a tale of two brothers, though no rivalry here, instead a Prodigal Brother (and wife) fable.  Older brother Harry Dean Stanton, a lost soul stumbling toward a small Texas town (today’s audiences might assume he’s ‘on the spectrum’), a victim of personal rot as becomes increasingly clear when ‘good’ brother Dean Stockwell flies in to bring him to his home in L.A.  (It’s a Road Pic so detours along the way inevitable.)  There, Stockwell and wife Aurore Clément have been raising Stanton’s eight-yr-old boy for the past four years so there’s a period of adjustment.  But a quickly improving, Stanton is soon determined to find missing wife Nastassja Kinski who's somewhere back in Texas.  And he's thrilled in his undemonstrative way to find his son wants to come with him.  The last act plays out in a different style, less interested in making every step believable or even dramatically justified.  But Shepard can only find his satisfyingly logical conclusion by flipping Stanton from helpless inarticulate to being psychologically articulate as hell.  As if William Inge had been brought in for a rewrite.  (BUS STOP, anyone?)  Meantime, Wenders over-indulges in onanistic Americana quirkiness.  But the film is endearing enough and strange enough, so you go with it even when you (as well as Wenders & Shepard) know better.  Its magical grace worth it.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  Apparently the script didn’t originally treat Stockwell & Clément in quite such a cavalier manner.  They deserved better.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY/LINK:  Shepard, helped by his high public profile (actor, craggy good looks, glam marriage) no doubt got him more than his fair share of film adaptations.  At his most persuasive, with off-the-charts cool factor, in THE RIGHT STUFF/’83.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-right-stuff-1983.html