Wim Wenders’ interest in landscapes and their lone inhabitants achieved its greatest expression in the elegiac road-movie of Paris, Texas, namely the raggedy love story of Travis and Jane Henderson — two people beckoned by the possibilities of the road, by its reach and escape. Wenders’ films draw their oxygen from the road, and his previous trilogy of “road-movies” — Alice in the Cities (1974), Wrong Move (1975) and Kings of the Road (1976) — openly embrace the complexities of life whilst puttering along the backroads of West Germany and the US.
Until the End of the World is a continuation of these journeys, confidently migrating Wenders’ itinerants across the globe, with the iconography of almost every continent given to his European witness. Here, Wenders takes the road to its farthest limits — the ultimate example, and indulgence, of the "road movie" — carrying several misfits along the way. This is beautiful and completely maddening cinema.
A monster that is difficult to take your eyes off, and it's also quite a size in more ways than one. If you have enjoyed other Wim Wenders films you will very likely enjoy this one. It's not quite as avant garde as "Wings of Desire" but has a lot more going on than "Paris, Texas". Great acting, great storytelling and great cinema. There are however one or two what you might call "continuity" irritations, which dent the plausibility of the storyline, but if you accept this as being one of the consequences of having an unlimited budget, then it is an opportunity to discover something also about the dynamics of film making.