This movie directed by Rob Reiner is often regarded as one of the worst films ever made, but somehow I kinda like it. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of things, wrong and unpleasant about this movie. The movie was often panned by many critics for its humorless jokes, adult content, racial insensitivity, ethnic stereotyping, cold-hearted characters, references to pedophilia and incomprehensible plot with an awful twist ending. I do agree with them, but I find myself, defending the movie, more, because it's told in the eyes of a trouble, often neglect, young child, North (Elijah Woods) who wish to have better parents. Without spoiling too much, I believe there seem to be more, to the film, that it's stating out. Based on the 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, the movie started out with North having a panic attack, and begins to lose consciousness. Call it a depressing fan theory, but I really think, the whole movie secretly is about North's final thoughts. He either about to die, or in a coma-like dream, wondering if his parents honestly love him. It wasn't his parents in a coma, it was him. This would make sense, why his secret spot looks like self-made purgatory, and why his guardian angel (Bruce Willis) comes out, as the Easter Bunny. It's a hint to the idea of resurrection. North is stuck, there, until he can come to terms, if he wants to live with his parents or not. This would explain, why the rest of the story is told in a child-like view of the world. Everywhere that he visits, is shown like a cartoon, stereotype matter. It's ironic that North is his name, because everybody that follows a compass believes North is prime direction, but it wasn't until North step out his borders, that the film shows how little, he knows of the world, and how truly directionless, he is. There is a scene that explains, that North fails in geography that somewhat, proves this theory. Still, all these fan theories, doesn't excuse the movie for how stupid the movie is. There are scenes in the movie that are so obnoxious that it was a bit unbearable. The worst for me, has to be the musical number in Texas that I found annoying, ripping hard to rip away 1959's TV show Bonanza and 1978's show, Dallas. The whole journey of racist insensitivity was a bit rough. The most offensive, has to be the whole Eskimo 'flow' scene. At least, all the characters kinda stand out. It's so weird, seeing so many big names actors playing insulting characters. I really think actors like Kathy Bates, Reba McEntire, Dan Aykroyd, and others probably fired their agents after seeing their performance in this film. Other actors seem not to care too much for the film, and just wing it, like Bruce Willis, Richard Belzer & Alan Arkin. Then, there are those actors that play it as if they were just, doing another Seinfeld episode like Jason Alexander & Julia Louis Dreyfus. Some actors really did, put some work into their characters, such as John Ritter & Elijah Woods. It's also worth noting that the movie even has young Scarlett Johansson in a minor role. The movie took friendly jabs at film and televisions references, such as the squeaky clean 1950's family suburbia, 1954's Father Knows Best, 1957's Leave it to Beaver, and 1960's Andy Griffin Show. It downright, nearly parody them in the Nelson sequence. Other good things about the film, is how the movie was shot by cinematographer, Adam Greenberg. The opening with all the snow-globes, foreshadowing North's adventure was pretty cool to see. This movie is the film that got me, hook on collecting snow globes, so thank you for that. A lot of work, also went into the exotic sets. My favorite has to be the Eskimo village, where everything looks like it's made of ice. It remind me of the Flintstone, TV show, with its fantasy juxtaposition of modern everyday objects with that of ice world setting. That was pretty cool. The movie made great use of all the locations. It was breath-taking beautiful. One thing, I have to say, was amazing is the theme song from Marc Shaiman. It was so whimsical, but charming. Despite, the all-star cast, and a good director at the helm, North will probably be, most well-known as the film that got famous film critic Roger Ebert super-ass mad about. No doubt, about it, North will continue to receive aggressively negative reviews. Is the movie, the worst thing, out there? No. I have saw worst. Overall: It's bad, but it can be 'so bad, it's good', somewhat watchable, if you turn off your brain. Check it out, if you want to, but I don't recommended, unless you want a headache.
