''Northfork'' is a 2003 film directed by Michael Polish and written by Michael and Mark Polish. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2003 and later received a limited release in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

on July 11, 2003. The film stars Duel Farnes,

James Woods James Howard Woods (born April 18, 1947) is an American actor. He is known for his work in various film, stage, and television productions. He started his career in minor roles on and off- Broadway. In 1972, he appeared in ''The Trial of the ...

Nick Nolte Nicholas King Nolte (born February 8, 1941) is an American actor. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1991 film ''The Prince of Tides''. He received ...

, Michele Hicks,

Daryl Hannah Daryl Christine Hannah (born December 3, 1960) is an American actress and environmental activist. She made her screen debut in Brian De Palma's supernatural horror film '' The Fury'' (1978). She has starred in various movies across the years, i ...

, Anthony Edwards,

Robin Sachs Robin Sachs (5 February 1951 – 1 February 2013) was an English actor, active in the theatre, television and films. He was also known for his voice-over work in films and video games. Born to a theatrical family, Sachs studied at the Royal Acad ...

, Ben Foster, Claire Forlani,

Clark Gregg Robert Clark Gregg Jr. (born April 2, 1962) is an American actor, director, and screenwriter. He is best known for playing Agent Phil Coulson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films ''Iron Man'' (2008), '' Iron Man 2'' (2010), ''Thor'' (2011), ' ...

Kyle MacLachlan Kyle Merritt MacLachlan (; ' McLachlan, February 22, 1959) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Dale Cooper in '' Twin Peaks'' (1990–1991; 2017) and its film prequel '' Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me'' (1992), as well as roles ...

and

Peter Coyote Peter Coyote (born Robert Peter Cohon; October 10, 1941) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, author and narrator of films, theatre, television, and audiobooks. He worked on films such as ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (1982), '' Cro ...

. This is the brothers' third film collaboration, after '' Twin Falls Idaho'' (1999) and '' Jackpot'' (2001).

Plot

The film's narrative consists of several interwoven subplots taking place in the town of Northfork,

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

circa 1955. A new dam is being built which will flood the valley of Northfork, and the town is in the midst of an evacuation. The narratives focus on several individuals who, for one reason or another, have yet to evacuate. Walter O'Brien (

) and his son ( Mark Polish) are on the evacuation team, helping to evacuate the last few inhabitants of Northfork. In return, the government will give them acres of lakeside property if they meet their evacuee quota. Father Harlan (

) is one such individual, who has stayed behind to care for Irwin (Duel Farnes), a dying orphan too weak to leave town. While the O'Briens and their co-workers encounter an array of unusual characters, Irwin discovers that he is the "unknown angel" through a suitcase with his angel wings in it and a Bible with an angel's feather telling his family 'story', and finds himself a family of angels (

, Anthony Edwards, Ben Foster, and

) in his dreams, who he makes a deal with to take him 'a thousand miles'.

Cast

*Duel Farnes as Irwin *

as Walter O'Brien *

as Father Harlan *

as Eddie * Claire Forlani as Mrs. Hadfield *

as Mr. Hadfield (uncredited) * Mark Polish as Willis O'Brien *

as Mr. Hope * Michele Hicks as Mrs. Hope * Ben Foster as Cod *

as Flower Hercules *

as Cup of Tea * Anthony Edwards as Happy *

Jon Gries Jonathan Gries ( '; born June 17, 1957) is an American actor, writer, and director. He is best known for the role of Uncle Rico in '' Napoleon Dynamite '' for which he was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male, and ...

as Arnold *

Rick Overton Richard Overton (born August 10, 1954) is an American screenwriter, actor and comedian. His writing credits include '' Dennis Miller Live'', and his acting credits include ''Beverly Hills Cop'', ''Groundhog Day'' and ''Mrs. Doubtfire''. Life an ...

as Rudolph *Douglas Sebern as Mayor *Josh Barker as Matt

Reception

Northfork received mixed to positive reviews from critics and has a rating of 57% on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

based on 103 reviews with an average rating of 6 out of 10. The consensus states "Visually poetic, but may be too dramatically inert for some." The film also has a score of 64 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

based on 31 reviews.

References

External links

*
''Northfork'' on Rotten Tomatoes.com''Northfork''
2003 films 2000s fantasy drama films Films set in 1955 Films set in Montana Films shot in Montana Paramount Vantage films American fantasy drama films Films directed by Michael Polish 2003 drama films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films {{2000s-drama-film-stub