Far North

A true representation of Minnesota's Twin Ports area. The sense of place and the true character representations make this a delight. Somewhat quirky, but enjoyable. Even the rather strange weather patterns of the area come through. For those of us who are familiar with the area the truth of the production is impressive. For those who are not familiar with the area this film might help them come to an understanding and appreciation of the Far North.

Ms. Lange is dead on with her speech patterns, and her believable presentation of some of the women who live by Lake Superior.

Sam Shepard's style of bringing out a piece of real American pie is sensitively portayed in "Far North". Acting is excellent portraying a woman (Jessica Lange) who rejoins her rural family after a buckboard accident puts her Dad in the hospital vowing revenge on his horse.

For folks like myself who have lived in the area for a while, this is an interesting little episode. For those who've never been here, it does give a pretty good feel for the ambiance of the Northwoods of Wisconsin.

In fact, I may actually know Charles Durning's character from my youth. The town I'm from is south of Ashland but had more than its share of characters... one of them built an early version of a go-cart with a 12HP, two-man chain saw motor and forgot to put brakes on it. He said it was scary going down the road, waiting to run out of gas but the looks on motorist's faces when he passed them made it worth the risk.

Thank you, Mr. Shepard for such an outstanding job of displaying what is humorous about us without insulting us.

Released in 1988, "Far North" is a comedy/farce/drama about a farm family in Duluth, Minnesota. Their supposedly diabolical horse, Mel, throws the patriarch (the bloated Charles Durning) and so the daughter with a bun in the oven (Jessica Lange) comes home from the Big Apple to visit Dad in the hospital. The matriarch (Ann Wedgeworth) has Alzheimers while the other daughter (Tess Harper) has her hands full on the farm raising a fatherless daughter (Patricia Arquette) who's quite the rebel. Donald Moffat is also on hand on hand as the alcoholic, gambling uncle. The plot revolves around the father's angry request to shoot the horse and the others arguing over doing it or not doing it.

Sam Shepherd wrote and directed this film. Although he wrote several screenplays or teleplays before "Far North" this was the first of only two films that he's directed. I can see why he didn't direct more movies.

What's the point of "Far North"? All I can come up with is that it's basically about an eccentric family of Northern Minnesota where the women have gone wild and don't need men to survive, although they crave them. The only two men in the story are elderly and nigh psychotic.

The movie is akin to 2000's "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" in tone albeit nowhere near as good. While the cast, locations, music and filmmaking are fine, nothing worked for me as far as the story and characters go. It's not compelling, it's not funny and I couldn't relate to the characters. It's pointless drivel and I find it hard to believe anyone would blow the time and money to create it. While most people agree that it's a bad film there are a minority who really like it. I guess they "got" it. I sure didn't.

The film runs 90 minutes and was shot in the Duluth area.

GRADE: D+

Back in the late 60's I attended a college in Superior, Wisconsin. I was from Philadelphia, Pa and had never experienced the cold and long winters near the small city of Duluth, MN. I met hard drinking people there (there's nothing else to do), blond as Jessica Lange with Scandinavian or Polish accents, many of them. There were good people and bad. The men worked the port ships or the railroad yards. The blizzards were like nothing I have ever seen.

Charles Durning gets a fat man's star turn. Dunning has been thrown by his farm horse and wants the animal shot by his daughter, Jessica Lange. She protests, but agrees to shoot the animal. She's back from the Twin Cities where she works as a professional woman with one in the oven. The old man is in the hospital with wild delusions about the horse, his Alzheimer wife, and life on the farm and it's bitter cold. The drunken Uncle sidekick doesn't help either. Also, there's the younger daughter, unmarried with a teen daughter. The teen, blond as her sisters, is soon to get it on with as many young hockey players as possible.

This is Sam Sheppard's first directorial film with plenty of farce, which gets heavy handed, so the viewer never really gets a grip on the emotional lives of these crazy folks. Maybe that's it. Their lives by Lake Superior are so harsh, they cannot communicate a sensible thought. Nevertheless, Far North is a snapshot of an out of the way, beautiful place that will interest the curious.