North Movie Review - Essay Example

Google came up with the same name every time I looked for the worst movies of all time. The name is “North”. Released in 1994, “North” is a movie based on a novel by Alan Zweibel. The story revolves around a kid named North, who’s 9 years old and is panic-stricken about his parent’s arguments. He finds them inattentive about his talents. Finally one day he got too agitated with his parent’s fights and decided to divorce his parents (Rotten Tomatoes, n.d.). He hired a Lawyer for the purpose and the Judge provided North with the time period covering a summer, for finding new parents. If he fails in his search then he will be sent to an orphanage. Here starts the journey of the boy. As his case was unique therefore he got popular worldwide and several parents desired to adopt him as their son. He traveled to Texas in search of perfect parents. In Texas, he spent some time with his new parents (Smith, n.d.). Due to some issues, he couldn’t stay there and therefore he further moved on. His next destination was Hawaii. In Hawaii, he was adopted by the Governor and his wife. Soon he found that he was being used for promotional purposes for alluring the people to stay in Hawaii. This embarrassed the kid and he again decided to move on.

The next destination is Alaska where he finds an Inuit village and a new set of parents. On the other hand, his actual parents got affected by Coma and they were displayed in a museum. Meanwhile, all the children of the whole world got influenced by North’s success and therefore they started threatening their parents by hiring a lawyer & giving divorce to them. The next part tells that North tried to settle with an Amish couple but he was completely turned down as the place had no electricity. In this way, the journey of the kid continues when ultimately he gets to know that his parents have recovered from Coma and are requesting him to come back. He returns to New York where a hitman follows him. He gradually realized that the hitman wanted to murder him. The story ends with a climax where he ultimately returns to his original parents and they get involved in celebration while suddenly the hitman shoots him. Awestruck North gets up from his sleep and realizes that it was all part of a dream.

1. The mentality of children in general is not at all reflected in the story. A 9-year-old kid would be much more busy with games rather than focusing on the disputes between his parents. Moreover, his grave decision on such insignificant issue was just too unbelievable.
2. The movie has a negative impact on the kids of society. All the kids got influenced by the movie and kept on threatening to leave their parents.
3. It was shown that the parents of the kid didn’t put enough attention to him yet the house provided to North looked like an expensive million-dollar building. This house was purchased with the salary of North’s dad who is just a pants inspector. Can the pants inspector earn so much? (Ebert, 1994)Well, only the director can answer it.
4. The scenes where the parents auditioned were very much awkward. It was not at all necessary. That part of the movie presented desperate and broad caricatures. It was not at all humorous rather it was forced and intentional.
5. A mystery man keeps on following North throughout his journey. Sometimes he poses as a cowboy, sometimes as a beach bum, and sometimes as the Easter bunny. What is the purpose of that character still remains a mystery to the audience. ( Gonsalves, n.d)

This movie is an ideal example of the failure of a marketing plan. Though it was directed by famous Rob Reiner, who directed movies like “When Harry Met Sally”, “The Princess Bride” and “The Sure thing”, still the movie lacks a strong plot. The actors did well. However, some portion of the movie was just superfluous and can be trimmed. The audience feedbacks and the critic’s reviews disclose an important characteristic, “Audience too has brains and they are not fools.” Technology, special effects, lots of money, good actors, etc. all will go in vain if the storyline is not appealing. One more thing that can be concluded from the review is that; a plan should be tested by the maker himself before he decides to launch it in the market. Similarly, the director would have analyzed the taste of his audience before making “North”.