Northfork | AccessAtlanta

Northfork

Mr. and Mrs. Hope come to the soon-to-be-flooded town seeking to adopt a child.

FILM FACTS

Starring: James Woods and Nick Nolte
Director: Michael Polish
Rating: PG-13 for brief sexuality
Genre: Drama

Discuss this film | Official movie site

See showtimes (PG-13) 94 minutes

Grade: B

Verdict: Prairie weirdness and Big Sky country grandeur from the Polish brothers.

By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Bursting with angels and Heaven-ly iconography, "Northfork" may be, in its own odd way, the most spiritual film of the year. Identical twin filmmakers Michael (he directs) and Mark (he acts) Polish call this the final film in their "heartland" trilogy, the first being the very good "Twin Falls, Idaho," and the second, the not very good "Jackpot."

They set their fablelike tale in 1955 Montana. Specifically, the town of Northfork, which, in two days, will go to a watery grave, courtesy of a huge new dam. Most of the residents have left, but there are still a few holdouts, including a man who's turned his house into an ark and taken aboard two of everything, including wives.

Six men in identical black suits -- called evacuators -- arrive to coax the holdouts into packing up. Among the latter are a father-son team (James Woods and Polish brother Mark) trying to decide if they should move their wife/mother's casket from the Northfork cemetery.

Meanwhile, a sickly orphan, Irwin (Duel Farnes), left in the care of the town's half-mad priest, Father Harlan (Nick Nolte, stomping around like Captain Ahab), tries to convince a quartet of very quirky angels he's the lost angel they're looking for. Or are they just figments of his fever-dream imagination?

There are so many mystic touches, you half expect someone to paraphrase the famous exchange from "Field of Dreams." ("Is this Heaven?" "No, it's Montana.") The evacuators, who wear little white feathers in their hats and angel pins on their lapels, mark those who've gone as "departed." A couple who come to adopt Irwin are Mr. and Mrs. Hope.

The dialogue seems pretentious at first, the pace slow and the story hard to grasp. But the movie sorts itself out (as much as it intends to), and you're pulled along because you can't imagine what you'll see (or hear) next. Visually, "Northfork" is spectacular. Cinematographer M. David Mullen uses a glorious wide-screen format with a palette that's as washed-out as Northfork is washed up. A church, a swing set, a gravestone -- all are silhouetted against the stark immensity of Big Sky country, much like Sam Shepard's isolated mansion in "Days of Heaven."

The film's compositions have a Coen brothers quality, and its deadpan style calls to mind David Lynch. The deadly puns, however, are pure Polish and should've been discarded by the third draft.

"Northfork" is one of those love it/hate it movies. For those on its peculiar wavelength, everything fits. For those who aren't, it's a painful piece of self-impressed drivel. Either way, you'll know you've been to the movies.