Northfork

Released 2003
Stars James Woods, Mark Polish, Nick Nolte, Duel Farnes, Daryl Hannah, Ben Foster, Anthony Edwards, Robin Sachs, Peter Coyote
Directed by Michael Polish
Reviewed March 25, 2004

"Northfork" is a brilliant art film that deals with the heaviest of subjects, but it's an accessible art film. I watched it two nights in a row, and it's a much more straightforward story than it may seem. The movie covers roughly a 24 hour period in the town of Northfork shortly before the town is to be covered by a man-made lake that will provide hydroelectric power to the region. Six men are charged with evacuating the citizens, and there's a subplot about a sick orphan, Irwin (Duel Farnes), who's tended by Father Harlan (Nick Nolte). Unlike many art films, there is a story, but like most art films, the story is not the point.

The film is a poetic, elegiac exploration of death, which uses symbolism and parallels to comment on its subject. There are parallels between the dying town and the dying boy, and between the evacuators who act as guardian angels and the four angels who visit Irwin. I don't believe in angels, but I love the idea of them. The movie overflows with angelic symbolism, and I found it very moving.

Mr. Hadfield: "You gave us a sick child, Father."
Father Harlan: "I gave you an angel."

Indeed, he did, and it's the subplot with Irwin and the four angels that involved me in this story. I've read some comments, and it seems some people were confused by this. I don't really know why, though, because the Polish brothers don't play any tricks with it. It's a little ambiguous at first, but it's really just what it seems to be. It's Irwin's feverish, dying wish to find a family to adopt him. It's told in a surrealistic, poetic manner that gives the film its emotional impact, because it allows the dying boy to express his desires through his dreams. If we had only seen the story from Father Harlan's perspective, we would have just watched Irwin's frail body expire. By getting inside his fantasy, we're brought into this bright, sensitive boy's final wish as he passes through his short life without accomplishing his one goal--to find a family to love him.

There was a moment that I had to ponder while I watched the film a second time, and that was why Father Harlan dissuaded the second couple from adopting Irwin. It seemed cruel to not grant the dying boy's wish to finally be loved, but on the other hand it would have been cruel to allow a childless couple to bring a boy into their lives only to have him die shortly after. As a priest, the Father was obligated to look at the bigger spiritual picture and make decisions that may seem cruel in one context but merciful in another. Besides, as he explains at the end, he had chosen himself to be Irwin's witness in death.

I think the reason I connected so strongly to this film is because it tells its story in a detached manner without sentimentality. Despite having a dying orphan, there isn't a cloying moment. The greatest injustice in the world is the death of a child, not only because that child is cheated out of their one chance for life. But also because they're never given a chance to reach their potential, which is limitless in its possibilities of joy and misery, accomplishments and failures. Some people do nothing with that potential, but everyone should be given their chance. At the end of the movie, when Irwin gleefully boarded the plane with his angels so he could pass into the next plane of existence, I lost it. Maybe it's partly because my son is the same age, but it devastated me.

Reviewed by Bill Alward
March 25, 2004
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