Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Eumenides_0 This is an unusual movie: it has elliptical storytelling, weird characters, angels, ship-shaped houses, biblical allusions, and dark humor. It's the Polish brothers' vision of Northfork, a small American town on the brink of being submerged as a new dam is about to start working. It's a surreal world, a fantasy about America. It's the type of movie I wish Hollywood would make more often.The cast is quite remarkable: James Woods, Nick Nolte, Daryl Hannah, Peter Coyote. Woods plays Walter, the leader of a group organized by the state to evacuate the people who stubbornly refuse to leave. BY hook or by crook they have to evacuate them. Nolte is the unlikely, but surprising, local priest who opposes the dam. And Hannah arrives with a family of weird, supernatural beings who befriends Irwin (Duel Farnes) a child who may or may not be an angel.The technical aspects are quite good, especially M. David Mullen's cinematography. He can turn a desert landscape into a place full of wonder and mystery, or the interior of a house into a sinister place.Northfork is not a simple movie to watch; it can be exasperating at times, sometimes it looks like it goes nowhere. But the patient ones will discover an obscure gem of American cinema.

mavmaramis Basic premise: Dam is built which is about to flood the town of Northfork. Everyone is evacuated except for the "die hards". In come a group attempting to evacuate the remainder - attempt to persuade them to leave.Well it sounded interesting enough on the back of the DVD box so I rented it.A more bizarre film populated with the weirdest characters I haven't seen. And the pace - it was just so turgidly slow. If it was supposed to be languid it wasn't, it was terminal. An hour and 20 minutes I watched in silence as more and more strange, and frankly inexplicable things happened in front of me.To be honest after that point I just got bored....it was just so slow.The washed out colour, the strange soundtrack with it's languid and slow orchestral pieces mixed with radio jazz from the 40s.And the characters...I keep coming back to these strange characters...the "Cup of Tea" character living in a house with a very near sighted...well I didn't know what to make of him, some sort of robot perhaps...with interchangeable hands...and strange guy with a suitcase and a lady with a wig.It was all so...well bizarre...I couldn't make heads or tails of it...and normally I'm the kind of guy who enjoys mystery and unusual characters.The DVD also said "A cross between Twin Peaks and Six Feet Under" - well if you couldn't get to grips with Twin Peaks then avoid this film.In one sequence, the boy runs from a swing to a house after seeing some strange creature on stilts...the creature reminded me of one seen in Jim Henson's "The Dark Crystal" I honestly couldn't take any more after and hour and 20 minutes...perhaps I should have tried to stick it until the end but an hour and twenty minutes seemed like an eternity and I gave up.Two stars - might have been 3 if cinematography had been better, desolate landscape notwithstanding.

The Movie Man Spiritual epiphany is a deeply personal experience. Where some clear glasses wearing posers from Islington may consider Northfork to be a profound and artistic revelation, I on the other hand see it as a soporific test of self indulgence.Occasionally my girlfriend tricks me into watching films that are so pretentious you just want to scream; this is one of them, although if I did snuggle up enough with gentle petting so she would let me hear her scream later on:>, which I like a whole lot more than films about angels, my second this month.'Northfolk' is one of those movies that is so deliberately over the top and annoying because it wants to shout out-look at me-look what we have done with this script!-we are real ac-tors!!!No you're not, your showing off; it really is like watching four Alan Rickman's at once; if you can possibly imagine that. Set in 1950s Middle America, residents of the small town of Northolk have to evacuate their valley because a dam construction project will soon flood it. But some won't budge so the government has sent the men in black, headed by James Woods, to evict them, including the last of the dead who are being dug up from the old cemetery where a scary fire and brimstone priest in Nick Nolte is also holding out against the hydro electric company. You don't see the dam or any water but the tension and resentment is rising like the creeping unseen torrents that will soon envelope their lives and homes.OK, so far so good, bit of intrigue, bit of tension, and bit of mystery. Then the Polish directing team of brothers, Mark and David, the hit the vodka and introduce some angles, seemingly straight from the scissor sisters judging by their attire. Enter Daryl Hannah as 'Flower Hercules' and four more cherubs with equally silly names. Their mission we are unsure off although the suggestion of the departed talking to people that are seemingly still alive then suggests all is not as it seems.With four householders and their homes still holding out, one shaped like Noah's Ark, a likewise number of men-in-black, headed by agent Walter O'Brien, (Woods), are ready to evict as the slues gates begin to turn. The stragglers on the other hand are waiting for a sign from God to tell them when to leave as their families have been living in the valley since 1776.The key to the yarn is a five year old kid (Dual Fernes), near to death, slipping in and out of conscious in Father Horton's crumbling church. The angels in question are here to see the little boy as he may be some sort of chosen won as he flits between life and death. This is also Kyle MacLachlan territory, he of Twin Peaks, fame, of which this film really reeks of; his casting as the reluctant hero who's the family man behind the rebellion. But what does this all mean as far as a film goes?The Thinking on this…It's a mess of a posturing movie and in truth makes no real sense. Has the valley already been flooded and these people are now dead or are the angels here to redeem them. There are plenty of clues for the later and I'm sure the bodies being dug up are a hint, but I was no the wiser at the end, all two hours of it.It's clearly a pet project by the brothers Polish, who write, produce and edit here, and the clout of previous success like the spooky' Twin Falls Idaho' gave them too much free reign. It is beautifully filmed and superbly lit, with every frame a surreal masterpiece, but where's the constructive narrative and meaning to this guys? I really didn't get it and there are only so many surreal metaphors I can handle.Its arty-farty stuff and will only really appeal to Bohemian types who can see 'inner meaning' and the spiritual message man. To me its looks like something that no one reigned in and trusted the direction to little effect. As the big fat prison guard in 'Cool Hand Luke' said to Paul Newman:" What we have here is a failure to communicate".The extra bits on DVD.The making off segment is equally pretentious as Nick Nolte-in his half moon glasses- tries to explain the 'deep meaning's' to the film and why he took this project and gave it everything he had. Bo**ocks, your too old for action flicks and they paid you cash up front here.Trailers. Galleries. Film biographies.

stever-28 I found this film slow and depressing, but still intriguing. Watching it on cable, I took a break after about 1/2 hour and came here to see what people were saying about it. Then I went back and watched the rest. I am glad I did. I found the message oddly uplifting. It reminded me of the old Twilight Zone episode where Robert Redford plays the warm and friendly angel of death.I think that the film is flawed, simply because so many people here failed to get the message. Many will give up on it. That is too bad, because the message is really wonderful.I am amazed at the number of reviews that simply report on the six men in black as government agents. Did no one see the wings on their lapels or the feathers in their hats? These guys are angels, charged with escorting (evacuating) souls to the next life. They are doing penance. Their reward is an acre and a half on the shores of the lake - a place in heaven. They return to escort the stubborn people who refuse to move on - the guy who nails his feet to the floor, the man and his wives who is waiting in his ark for a sign from God. Notice that they run into the minister in town, but never pay him a visit when he is with the boy. The minister is doing the same thing as the men in black - assisting with the transition. James Woods character makes a statement that their job is not to change anyone's beliefs, just to help with their evacuation.This entire movie takes place in the world between life and death. Too bad it is so slow and depressing.