Northfork (2003)

The Worst Film Ever

Nice effects though.

A Disappointing Continuation

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

In 1955, a dam is soon going to flood the town of Northfork. Walter O'Brien (James Woods) and his son Willis O'Brien (Mark Polish) are two of people brought in to push the last hold-outs to evacuate the town. They have convince a religious family unwilling to leave. Father Harlan (Nick Nolte) is staying behind to take care of sickly orphan Irwin who shows signs of being an angel.The whole movie is stuck in an unmoving dream state. It's hard to follow the kid's narrative because it's all so surreal. Daryl Hannah is fascinating but WTF is she? It lacks tension because it's obviously something unreal. The evacuation crew is a little easier to invest in and the God discussion is oddly fascinating. I've certainly heard that story before which makes the awkward telling rather memorable. I wouldn't recommend this for the casual movie goer. It's a little weird.

Maybe because my grandmother homesteaded in Montana and my dad grew up there in a log cabin, but Montana holds a special place in my otherwise-urban heart. Instead of going for the lush color-saturated beauty of "A River Runs Through It," the Polish brothers have captured the stark beauty of Montana winter, evoking a b&w film by various means of color desaturation, from art direction to assorted film processing techniques, to good effect in my humble opinion. So the palette of gray scale and sepia and flesh tones, pale blue sky and silver airplane and concrete dam, effectively supports the dreamlike quality. The two stories interweave gracefully - it worked beautifully for me. The acting is of a very high standard (although I suspect it may have required judicious editing of the "Irwin" performance, as is often the case with child actors); the writing reminds me of skipping a stone across a lake, touching lightly on various elements before moving into the depths. I enjoyed the direction and editing a lot although I can imagine that some people would find the some of the cuts too "artistic" - but then I like movies that recognize they're movies and they can juxtapose visuals and elements in a way that we can't, living day to day.

A dreamy, stunningly atmospheric film takes place in a small town of Northfork, Montana in 1955. The government officials arrive to evacuate the town about to be inundated by a new hydroelctrical dam. There are the other visitors in the town, the angels from another time but they only seen by a dying boy Irvin. A local priest (Nick Nolte in a quiet heartbreaking performance) takes care of the boy. Irvin pleads with the angels to leave the place with them...There is some unearthly quality in the film, some dignified mourning and sublime sadness when you suddenly realize the inevitable finality of everything - humans and their relationships, cities, countries, civilizations, the whole world as we know it. Death and birth have something in common - we go through them in the ultimate loneliness. I cannot recall the film that affected me in the same way and as deeply as "Northfork" did, the film so beautiful and so tender, so quiet and so powerful, so heartbreaking and so moving. Even now, after several weeks since I saw it, tears come to my eyes when I only think of it.After I saw it, I had to talk to somebody about it. I sent a PM to one of my friends and I asked, "Please tell me what I just saw?" And my friend replied with the words, "You just saw one of the greatest films of modern times. One of these days others will see the light."

In my efforts at subtle social engineering through cinema, I implore people to see this movie.What an ambitious film, which is equal in quality to the written word. I was surprised to learn how young the Polish brothers are and that they wrote the thing, which sounds like good Tim Findley. Ridiculouly good. And supposedly made for peanuts, ridiculous again. I have to fill in at least 10 lines here, what else to say. Sure its a bit strange, but give it a chance and it may provoke the imagination to savor a unique and enriching experience the way a painting can cause us to reflect each of us upon something unexpected, or the way a wonderful meal can make us feel better for reasons we don't fully understand. Creative, imaginative, visionary, (these are three different things, by the way) and full of unyielding guts. SEE IT NOW, AND SEE ANYTHING THESE GUYS HAVE DONE, FROM NOW ON. OKAY, THAT'S IT.