Northfork

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Northfork is a 2003 fantasy drama film directed by Michael Polish and written with his brother Mark Polish. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2003, and opened in U.S. theaters on July 11, 2003. The film stars Peter Coyote, Anthony Edwards, Claire Forlani, Daryl Hannah, Nick Nolte, James Woods, Kyle MacLachlan, Ben Foster, and others. It is the Polish brothers’ third collaboration after Twin Falls Idaho and Jackpot.

Plot
Set in Northfork, Montana around 1955, a new dam will flood the valley, so the town is being evacuated. Walter O’Brien and his son work to evacuate the remaining residents, hoping the government will pay them with lakefront land if they meet their quota. Father Harlan stays behind to care for Irwin, a dying orphan who cannot leave. As the story follows several townspeople, Irwin discovers he is an “unknown angel” through a suitcase with wings and a Bible with an angel feather that tells his family story. In his dreams, he encounters an angelic family and imagines a way to be taken away.

Production
The script was the Polish brothers’ first screenplay. They based the story on people and places they knew in California and Montana. Filming took 24 days in Montana locations such as Fort Peck, Choteau, Great Falls, Fort Peck Dam, and Augusta, using CinemaScope. The budget was about $1.9 million, and the box office was around $1.6 million.

Reception
Northfork drew mixed to positive reviews. Rotten Tomatoes scores it around 57% based on 103 reviews, with critics calling it visually poetic but possibly slow. Metacritic gives it 64/100 from 31 reviews. Roger Ebert gave it 4 out of 4 stars, calling it a visionary, elegiac fable. The New York Times’ A. O. Scott noted its quiet Americana, likening the Polish brothers’ approach to a mix of the Coen brothers and Wim Wenders. IndieWire praised the cinematography, highlighting Mullen’s wide, striking frames and the film’s magnetic, eerie pull.