North is a 1994 American comedy-drama adventure film directed by Rob Reiner. The story is based on the 1984 novel North: The Tale of a 9-Year-Old Boy Who Becomes a Free Agent and Travels the World in Search of the Perfect Parents by Alan Zweibel, who co-wrote the screenplay and has a minor role in the film.
The cast includes Elijah Wood in the title role, with Jon Lovitz, Jason Alexander, Alan Arkin, Dan Aykroyd, Kathy Bates, Faith Ford, Graham Greene, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Reba McEntire, John Ritter, and Abe Vigoda. Bruce Willis narrates and plays several different roles throughout the film, and a 9-year-old Scarlett Johansson appears briefly in her film debut. This was the final theatrical film for Alexander Godunov before his death the following year.
The film was shot in Hawaii, Alaska, California, South Dakota, New Jersey, and New York. It was produced by Castle Rock Entertainment and New Line Cinema and released by Columbia Pictures on July 22, 1994. North was a box office bomb, grossing $12 million against its $40 million budget. North was panned by critics, and has been referred to as one of the worst films ever made.
Contents
Plot
Skilled in academics, sports, and drama, and praised for his good work and obedience, 11 year old North feels unvalued by his own parents. The Easter Bunny—a man in a pink bunny suit at a shopping mall—recommends North simply explain his feelings to them, but North says their neglect makes them undeserving. Helped by his best friend Winchell, who works on the school paper, North plots to "divorce" his parents, hiring ambulance-chasing lawyer Arthur Belt to file the papers. The announcement shocks his parents, leaving them unresponsive when Judge Buckle grants his petition, giving him one summer to find new parents or go to an orphanage.
North's first stop is Texas, where his parental candidates, Ma and Pa Tex, promise to use their wealth to fulfill North's desires. In a musical number (set to the Bonanza theme), they explain that their first son, Buck, died in a stampede and they plan to use North to replace Buck, planning out his entire life in advance, including his future wife. They also feed him massive quantities of food hoping he will become as obese as Buck was. Gabby, a sharpshooting cowboy (also the man in the Easter Bunny suit), presents North with a souvenir from his act—a silver dollar with a bullet hole shot through its center—and explains that North is unhappy with the Texes because he wishes to be appreciated for who he is, not made into someone else.
In Hawaii, Governor and Mrs. Ho are struggling with infertility and are eager to adopt. Believing North's presence will attract mainlanders, the governor unveils a tourism campaign referencing the classic Coppertone ad and showcasing North's bare buttocks. The man in the bunny suit reappears on the beach in the guise of a tourist with a metal detector and explains that parents shouldn't use children for personal gain. In an Inuit village in Alaska, two more prospective parents calmly send their elderly grandfather out to sea on an ice floe to die with dignity. North realizes winter is approaching and his summer is almost up.
Back home, North's catatonic parents are put in a museum display. His quest has inspired children worldwide to hire Arthur and Winchell to facilitate leaving their own parents. North's next prospects are Amish, but the lack of conveniences quickly disappoints him. His experiences in Zaire, China, and Paris are equally fruitless. Finally, he finds the Nelsons, an ideal family who give him attention and appreciation, but he is still unsatisfied.
Production
Ryan Merriman stated in a 1999 interview alongside Bobbie Wygant that he auditioned for the lead role before Elijah Wood was cast in 1993. The movie was shot in New York with additional shooting in Los Angeles, Hawaii, and Alaska (Prince William Sound and several glaciers). John Candy was initially cast as Pa Tex before dropping out and being replaced by Dan Aykroyd.
Release
Home media
The initial VHS release of the film came out in 1995 by Columbia TriStar Home Video (under the New Line Home Video label) and the initial LaserDisc release of the film also came out in 1995 by Image Entertainment (under the New Line Home Video label). The film would be out of print for over a decade until Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released a DVD-R containing the film on September 4, 2012, and a BD-R containing the film on August 1, 2017.
Reception
Box office
The film grossed only $7 million in the United States and Canada and $12.2 million worldwide, making it one of the worst-performing films of the year given its large budget.
Critical response
North has been called one of the worst films ever made. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 12% of 110 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Laden with schmaltz and largely bereft of evident narrative purpose, North represents an early major disappointment from previously sure-handed director Rob Reiner." Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B−" on scale of A to F.
Kenneth Turan stated in his review, "The problem overall is not so much that the humor, especially in the parent-tryout situations, is forced, but that it simply is not there at all. So little is going on in this mildest of fantasies that it is hard to even guess what kinds of emotional effects were aimed at in the first place." Turan wrote, "How could director Rob Reiner, whose touch for what pleases a mass audience is usually unfailing, have strayed this far?" Leonard Klady of Variety thought the film was a "noble misfire" that "fails to find the balance or tone that would make the parable work." He described it as a "unique breed of misconceived entertainment that only a filmmaker of talent is capable of making." Joe Brown of The Washington Post called the film "a gentle, harmless and rather pedestrian fantasy" that "seldom raises more than a chuckle." Stephen Hunter of The Baltimore Sun wrote that the film had "no characters, only cutouts", describing it as just "there, dim and witless, occasionally rancidly racist." Janet Maslin of The New York Times was somewhat more positive, writing that the film "doesn't always work, but much of it is clever in amusingly unpredictable ways."
North was a multiple nominee at the 15th Golden Raspberry Awards in six categories including Worst Picture and Worst Director for Rob Reiner.
In an interview with Archive of American Television, Reiner defended the film, saying:
I loved doing it, and some of the best jokes I ever had in a movie, are in that movie. I made this little fable, and people got mad at me, because, you know, I had done When Harry Met Sally..., and Misery, and A Few Good Men, and everybody said 'Oh, it should be a more important kind of movie.' I said, 'Why? Why can't you just make a little slice of a fable or something?'
Film critic Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times seemed especially baffled by North, describing Reiner as "a gifted filmmaker" and Wood as "a talented young actor", but deeming North "one of the worst movies ever made." Ebert stressed that he "hated this movie" and also suggested the film was so poorly written that even the best child actor would look bad in it, and viewed it as "some sort of lapse" on Reiner's part. Ebert awarded North a rare zero-star rating.
Year-end lists
#1 Worst – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
#1 Worst – Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune
#5 Worst – Michael Medved, Sneak Previews
Top 10 worst (alphabetical order, not ranked) – William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Top 10 worst (not ranked) – Betsy Pickle, Knoxville News-Sentinel
Dishonorable mention – Glenn Lovell, San Jose Mercury News
Dishonorable mention – Dan Craft, The Pantagraph
Worst (not ranked) – Bob Ross, The Tampa Tribune
