Meanwhile a young mother and father are about to leave the village. With them is their adopted son. The boy is ill and will not make it if he'll leave with his parents. Afraid for their son's life they decide to leave the child behind. His caretaker, Father Harlan, will stay with him, while the boy's parents leave the village. Lying in his bed the boy starts to fantasize. First he meets Flower
Hercules at the village's graveyard. The boy, who's name is Irwin, is standing by the grave of his real father and mother. Flower Hercules is looking for someone and speaks briefly with the boy. Before she or he, since Flower Hercules seems not be man or woman, leaves the child, Flower gives him a feather, which the boy holds tightly. Back to the room where little Irwin is lying, a feather falls out of his hand when he sleeps. Father Harlan sees it, picks it up and saves it in a book.While the six men are trying to convince the villagers to leave, Irwin starts to fantasize again. This time he's sitting on a swing when suddenly he sees a strange reddish creature who's legs are like long stilts. Irwin follows the creature and is led to a house. When nobody opens the door he decides to walk in himself. There he meets Flower Hercules and her fellow relatives who go by the names: Cup of Tea, Cod and Happy. The four of them are looking for a relative they have lost. They ask the boy if he knows about the 'unknown angel'. He says he does. The four ask Irwin to bring them this angel, promising the boy that they take him with him, 1000 miles away as he wishes. When the boy returns all he has with him is a long suitcase. When the four ask him where the unknown angel is, he tells them he's the angel they've been looking for. Suspicious, Happy starts to investigate the boy. First he searches for his wings. When these can not be found, the boy says they took them form him, amputated them. All he got left are some feathers that seem to grow from his body sometimes on an early morning. Next Happy investigates the boy's body, looking for his halo. That too, they took from him, Irwin says. Next Irwin shows them what's in the suitcase. There they find a gun. The boy tells about how he was flying with his flock of angels and got shot from the sky when they were flying across Northfork. This is how he ended up in the village as an orphan. After the boy's story Irwin leaves again, leaving the four discussing over wheter the boy might be their relative or not.
During the boy's fantasies the six men are still evacuating people, like the man who has built his own arc and has two wifes like Noah had two of everything. The wifes are eventually convinced to leave, but the man, Mr Stalling, doesn't want to leave and stays. For the two men, a father and a son, this arc was part of the 65 houses they had to evacuate. Because the man decides to stay they only have evacuated 64 houses. Therefore they won't get the 1.5 acres of ground they could have earned. Not giving in that easily, the son tells the head of state that there's another house they haven't investigated yet. This house, so it turns out is the one where Flower Hercules and the others live.
After rethinking everything the boy has said, Happy concludes that he's one of them, he's the relative they were looking for. Flower Hercules is allowed to get the boy and take him with them. But first the father and son investigate the house. It seems nobody's home. They both investigate the first floor where they find out that in the middle the house is broken up in two separate parts. The father is on one part of the house, the son's on the other. He ask his father to jump so he'll be on his side and they'll be together. The father jumps, makes it to the other side, but hits the floor. When he tries to get up he sees Flower Hercules and the others. Not sure what he saw he decides to leave quickly taking his son with him, but leaving behind a suitcase. This suitcase is almost as big as the one Irwin brought the four. When they open it they find two beautiful wings that look like if it belongs to an angel.
Then Iwrin dies, but not before he has his last fantasy. He's taken by Flower Hercules telling him he's their relative and explaining to him that she will nor be his mother nor his father, since she's both. Together with the other three they leave with a plane, leaving Northfork behind. Next to the bed Irwin has died in, stands a little table. On it are a comic about Hercules, a flower in a vase, a bottle of cod liver oil and a cup of tea.
Is it any good?
Northfork is a very different movie. I don't think I have ever seen anything like it. First off, the movie has a very slow pace, which fits the story well and gives it a haunting feeling. The music is lovely, very relaxing and the images look beautiful. Also the costumes, in particular that of Flower Hercules, look amazing. Overall Northfork has a kind of surrealism to it. It looks very arty, like a painting. The colors that are used make it look really peaceful. The story uses a lot of symbolism and has biblical references which shows in the spoken dialogue and in some of the characters. The movie is filled with these references that you may not always be able to place. All actors are great. Especially Daryl Hannah as Flower and Nick Nolte as Father Harlan. Anthony Edwards, whom I only know from E.R., I didn't recognize at all. He definitely looks
different as Happy.Some people call this movie boring, but I thought it was interesting enough to keep me watching. At times I kind of felt that I had the urge for something big to happen, but this never made me look away from the screen. This movie is a bit tough to understand immediately when you first watch it. I'm not quite sure what it all means. But the way it is brought is really comforting. Watching this movie just feels really nice. Right now it isn't a movie that I instantly love. Maybe if I watch it again or put more thought in it I will come to love it. But for now it's just a really nice film, with a story that seems like a little fable, a story you tell your kids before they go to bed.
Is it a must-see?
Nope, I don't think so. It's not a movie you need to see, because it's so awesome, it's so great. But it's definitely something else. And if you like something else, than you should watch it. But to me it isn't a movie that I feel I really should have watched. It's nice, but nothing more. If I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't really have missed something.
Is it inspiring?
Not so much. Northfork didn't have me going: wow I want to make a movie like this! I did like the way the story is told, though. I love the images and the costumes. The location where it's shot is tremendously beautiful. Very breathtaking scenery. It would be great to shoot a film in a place like that. It seems to have a very dramatic feel to it. It's really a character in itself. Just the colors, they make for so much emotion. It really is a haunting landscape, so open, so empty. Also the scene in the church, that did not have a back wall, was a lovely sight. Nice and original. That had me in awe for a moment.
Best scene
The best scene is the part where Flower Hercules and Irwin meet for the first time. When we, the viewer, see Flower for the first time she's surrounded by this bright white light. The way this is shot looks very beautiful. And really adds something to the lovely costume Daryl Hannah is
wearing. I also liked the red creature, of which I'm not sure what it is and what it means. But it really fitted the story. And it added to the strangeness that is Northfork. It was that little extra that makes it more special and different from anything else. It's nice that a strange creature like that is added without giving an explanation of what it is or what it means. It was just there.Best piece of dialogue
I loved the dialogue in this movie. It sounds poetic and deep. My favourite line has to be this one: "We are all angels. It is what we do with our wings that separates us."
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