I t is not often given to a director to make a perfect film. Some spend their lives trying, but always fall short.
Few films have such an overwhelming sense of location.
Presbyterian Church is a town thrown together out of raw lumber, hewn from the forests that threaten to reclaim it. The earth is either mud or frozen ice. The days are short and there is little light inside, just enough from a gas lamp to make a gold tooth sparkle, or a teardrop glisten. This is not the kind of movie where the characters are introduced. They are all already here.