North Country Review
by [email protected] (dnb AT dca DOT net)November 17th, 2005
NORTH COUNTRY
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2005 David N. Butterworth
*** (out of ****)
With the sprawling Mesabi Iron Range of Northern Minnesota circa 1989 providing its cinematic backdrop, "North Country" features Charlize Theron ("Monster") in a gritty, fictionalized account of the first major sexual harassment class-action lawsuit filed in the United States.
If "Flashdance"'s Jennifer (Beals) could pass as a welder then why not Charlize as an "Erin Brockovich"-styled mine worker?
Having finally had enough of the beatings and bruisings at the hands of her loser husband, Josey Aimes (Theron) packs her two kids into the family pick-up and heads north, back to her hometown, and temporarily moves in with her folks (played by Sissy Spacek and Richard Jenkins). Josey is determined to make a better life for herself and her kids, but that's hard to do when washing hair in the local beauty salon barely pays minimum wage.
Then an old girlfriend (Frances McDormand, sporting that delightful Minnesotan accent we loved so much in "Fargo") points out that Josey could be making six times what she's making working at the mine. Sure, the work is tough and mostly degrading and men outnumber women 30 to one but it's a chance for Josey to finally get ahead, get her own place and start a new life for herself and her family. So she submits to the internal exam and signs on.
But life at the pit is not a happy one. The work *is* tough, but the constant aggravation from her lewd, rude, and altogether crude male co- workers is even tougher, with verbal, emotional, and physical abuse the order of the day (the few women are clearly not welcome, viewed as taking away men's jobs in a depressed and highly sexist society in which whatever befalls a woman is considered her own fault). Josey vows to fight back. But it's then that she learns just how alone she is, when advice from her peers, her friends, even her disapproving father, amounts to shutting up and taking it like a man.
It will take even more resolve, even more grit and determination (and the services of a former hockey pro turned lawyer), for Josey to sue her ore-struck employer Pearson Taconite and Steel in order to establish security for herself and, more importantly, future generations of women.
Niki Caro's film--she made "Whale Rider" with Keisha Castle-Hughes-- reminds us of those fine feminist features "Silkwood" and "Norma Rae," when the little man going up against the big corporate monster was a woman. Caro peppers "North Country" with sprawling aerial shots of the Minnesota strip mines, almost romanticized in their bleakness (Chris Menges is her cinematographer) and draws purposeful performances from her able cast (Woody Harrelson is the only exception; his goofy charm seems out of place as defense attorney Bill White).
But Theron is all there, mullet-haired and motivated, as is Spacek as her distaff mom (the veteran actor seems to be making an unheralded comeback with films like this, "Nine Lives," and "The Ring Two"). And the hard-working Jenkins has a powerful scene in a union hall. McDormand, of course, is wonderful--tender and tenacious as the no nonsense-y Glory. She puts the class in "class action."
So hop in your Chevy and head to "North Country," an uplifting and socially relevant drama that mines the prodigious talents of its cast and crew.
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David N. Butterworth
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
