"A MASTERPIECE." Richard Roper, EBERT ROEPER EBERT, EBERT ROEPER "INGENIOUS. A WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL RICHARD CORLISS, TIME MAGAZINE "A WHO IN KENNY, PREMIERE MAGAZINE A VERY VIVID ER. IT'S A 21ST-CENTURY VERSION OF 'THE STING." DAVID A VSWEEK "FUN. GLIDES FROM COMEDY TO SUSPENSE, POL HANDY. VANITY FAIR "CAGE'S PERFORMANCE IS ABLE AND RESTRAINED." PAUL CLINTON.
CNN "COM JIG. HABLE." KEVIN LALLY, FILM JOURNAL "CAGE IN PERFORMANCE, COMPLETE WITH HEART AND SOUL." STEP FA LINE MAGAZINE "DEVILISHLY CLEVER. SAM MAN ARE TWO OF THE BEST YOUNG ACTORS NOW WORK IN MATCHSTICK MENAmerica Online Keyword: Matchstick Men 03001 WARNER Warner how. BROS. Sat.
All Right PICTURES Seerwel PG-13 Regal Cinemas Independent Cinemark AMC Regal Cinemas BRANDYWINE TOWN CTR 16 CINEMA CENTER 3 MOVIES 10 PAINTER'S CROSSING 9 PEOPLES PLAZA 17 RI 202 Naaman's Rd Newark Shop Ctr R1 4 of Newport Rts 1 202 RI 896 RI 40 SPECIAL ENGAGEMENTS NO PASSES OR DISCOUNT COUPONS ACCEPTED CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES OR CALL FOR SOUND INFORMATION AND SHOWTIMES FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS MOTTE America Online Keyword: Matchstick Men www.matchstickmenmovie.com Movietone.com (movietone. www.delawareonline.com MOVIES FRIDAY, SEPT. 26, 2003 THE NEWS JOURNAL 9 Angels and ambiguity hover New dam, old legend hold potential to flood town with water, spirit Michael and Mark Polish's "Northfork," the third of their films delving into the yearnings of the American heartland, is an enigmatic yet seductive film that presents a challenge to the viewer even as it evokes a mystical feeling of transcendence. Spiritual odysseys make ambitious screen undertakings, and none more so than "Northfork." But lest the film sound offputtingly pretentious, it also has in full measure the droll, deadpan humor that characterized the Polish brothers' previous features, "Twin Falls Idaho" and "Jackpot." Neither film, however, prepares us for "Northfork," which is set on a vast Montana plain in 1955, two days before the town of the film's title will be submerged by the opening of an immense dam, a vast Streamline Moderne affair with huge turbines all set to go. Government officials are not amused, however, that 65 Northfork residents have still not left their property, and six men, clad in black and paired into three teams, have been recruited to facilitate the The key team consists of Walter O'Brien (James Woods), who also must decide whether to exhume his late wife's body from the local cemetery and rebury her, and Walter's son Willis (Mark Polish).
The Albert Speerstyle monumentality of the dam and the grim resolve of the black-clad "evacuators" in their identical black Fords give a decidedly fascistic aura to the proceedings. Meanwhile, a distraught, guilt-ridden young couple pull up to a derelict, all-but-abandoned orphanage run by Father Harlan (Nick Nolte). Returning a dying boy, Irwin, they protest that the child was sick when they adopted him. Harlan accepts the boy, telling the couple that Irwin is an angel, and whether or not this is true is the heart of the matter. The boy starts experiencing visions, which may or may not be real, that an ancient flock of roaming angels is coming to take him home.
The angels occupy a large, plain frame house, split in half and resting on blocks, as if ready to be moved. They are the harddrinking, cynical Cup of Tea (Robin Sachs) and the androgynous Flower Hercules (Daryl Hannah), who are both dressed in Shakespearean era costumes. Their leader is Happy (Anthony Edwards), who looks like a late-19th- or early-20th-century By KEVIN THOMAS Los Angeles Times REVIEW Northfork STORY LINE: This prairie folk tale takes place in 1950s Montana, where a town must be evacuated to make room for a new dam. CREDITS: Starring Nick Nolte, James Woods, Daryl Hannah and Anthony Edwards. Paramount Classics, 94 minutes RATING: PG-13 for brief sexuality scientist-scholar; his spectacles are equipped with an array of lenses of varying intensities, and his prosthetic arms look more animal than human.
The fourth angel, Cod (Ben Foster), is a mute, pale youth clad in a florid cowboy outfit. They are holed up in the living-dining room of the house. When we first encounter the angels, Happy is studying a 19thcentury painting of Northfork, which has an angel painted in its right hand corner in keeping with an old legend that angels hover over the town. While we're left to wonder about them, they in turn are eager to ascertain if Irwin really is an angel. The divided house, in which the angels may or not be holed up, is on Walter and Willis' "evacs" list, and the way in which the film's two stories converge constitutes a provocatively bold stroke of imagination on the part of the Polish brothers they co-write and coproduce, with Michael directing and Mark acting.
As hard as it may be to believe, the preceding is but a barebones outline of the film, which is full of sly touches of magical realism and which elicits a range of thoughts and emotions. "Northfork" is an evocative piece of Americana, rich with feelings of loss and longing a consideration of the eternal cycle of life and death and of the ruthless inevitability of change, of the interplay of cruelty and kindness, wisdom and foolishness, that constitutes human nature. "Northfork" is also a prairie folk tale expressing with hand-hewn charm and tenderness the possibility of an afterlife, or at the very least that there's always a lot more to life than meets the eye. A GRIPPING SUSPENSE-THRILLER WITH SURPRISES AROUND EVERY CORNER. 22619H COLD CREEK MANOR DISTRIBUTED BY BUENA VISTA PICTURES DISTRIBUTION PICTURES RE PAINTERS CROSSING FIRST STATE PLAZA SEE IT 101 PEOPLES PLAZA amc CINEMARK MOVIES 10 REGAL CINEMAS REGAL CINEMAS Rts.
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