LAND OF PLENTY

**½ (two and a half stars)

Running time: 119 minutes. Not rated (violence). At the IFC Center, Sixth Avenue and Third Street.

PAUL (John Diehl) went a little funny in the head fighting in Nam; now he trolls the streets of L.A. in a van outfitted in high-tech surveillance gear. His self-appointed mission is to find terrorists.

If Travis Bickle – that other Viet vet – were driving a cab post-9/11, he’d be like Paul, the anti-hero of Wim Wenders’ “Land of Plenty.”

Paul spots a Middle Eastern dude in a turban and immediately thinks he’s ready to blow up the United States. His stakeout of “turban boy,” as he calls him, brings him in contact with his estranged niece, Lana (Michelle Williams).

She’s one of the lefties that right-wing fruitcake Paul hates, and she’s just returned to the United States after years in the Middle East. She, too, has a mission: to find her uncle.

Wenders – whose resume includes “Wings of Desire” and the Oscar-nominated “The Buena Vista Social Club” – shot “Land of Plenty” on digital video in just 16 days.

He gets authentic performances from his leads (it’ll be interesting to see if Williams does as well in the much-hyped “Brokeback Mountain”).

“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.

Trivia note: There’s a very funny cameo by Gloria Stuart, whose career ranges from “The Invisible Man” in 1933 to “Titanic” in 1997.