The titular town of Northfork, Montana is about to be submerged by the waters from a nearby dam. Three pairs of men have been hired by the government to remove the last remaining citizens of the town before everything goes underwater. Each team has been promised that if they each can confirm the removal of 65 citizens, they will be given 1.5 acres of lakefront property on the newly created body of water.
They’ve got their work cut out for them since the remaining townspeople include a man who’s built an ark for the oncoming flood, a man who’s taken to permanently sitting on his front porch with a shotgun and a woman who runs a diner that makes customers guess what kind of food is stll available.
In a somewhat disconnected subplot, Father Harlin (Nick Nolte) has taken in Irwin (Duel Farnes), a sick orphan who has been abandoned by his adopting parents because he’s too ill to journey out of Northfork. Father Harlin attempts to ease his suffering with drugs. Irwin, who drifts in and out of sleep, seems to escape into his dreams to visit four strange characters with odd names. Flower Hercules (Daryl Hannah), Happy (Anthony Edwards), Cod (Ben Foster) and Cup of Tea (Robin Sachs) are searching for an unknown angel who has some familial connection to them. And, really, that’s about it. There’s not much of a plot to spoil because that’s really the whole movie right there in a nutshell.
While Northfork is wonderfully edited and contains some oddly beautiful images, the visual side is completely let down by the leaden pacing and the morose atmosphere that permeates the entire film. In one scene, Father Harlin narrates a View-Master slide show for Irwin. At times, that’s how the entire movie feels: just a collection of images one after another.
It’s been awhile since I’ve been as disappointed by a movie as I was by Northfork. I’d seen the Polish Brothers’ Twin Falls, Idaho a few years ago and appreciated it for its moving and somewhat bizarre portrayal of the imminent death of a twin. So I was expecting something a little out of the ordinary and interesting to look at from Northfork. I didn’t expect it to be as uninteresting as it turned out to be.
2.0 out of 5.0 stars
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