The year is 1955, and a great flood is coming to Northfork, Montana. A new hydroelectric dam is about to be installed in the mountains above the town, ready to submerge the valley in the name of progress. It is the charge of a six-man Evacuation Committee to relocate the townsfolk to higher ground. Most have duly departed, but a few stubborn stragglers remain – among them a priest caring for a sickly orphan, a boy whose fevered visions are leading him to believe he is a member of a roaming band of lost angels desperately searching for a way home.
An insufferably artsy, pretentious work, the sort of picture that gives art films a bad name.
– Rene Rodriguez,
Miami Herald,
1 Aug 2003
fresh:
It's a tone poem of a movie, more visual than coherent. As such, what it's about is less important than the spell it casts.
– Roger Moore,
Orlando Sentinel,
1 Aug 2003
fresh:
For those on its peculiar wavelength, everything fits. For those who aren't, it's a painful piece of self-impressed drivel. Either way, you'll know you've been to the movies.
– Eleanor Ringel Gillespie,
Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
2 Aug 2003
fresh:
A compelling juxtaposition of the poignant and the bizarre, a movie that tosses moviemaking rules into the nearest Cuisinart.
– Bill Muller,
Arizona Republic,
7 Aug 2003
rotten:
For me, the Polish brothers marched down a road leading nowhere.