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NORTH COUNTRY Send This Review to a Friend
Class action cases charging sexual harassment against women have become part of the legal landscape, but "North Country" dramatically reaches back to the case that began it all as the inspiration for a fictional treatment. Superb actress Charlize Theron portrays a northern Minnesota mineworker named Josey Aimes who institutes the lawsuit - the real litigant was Lois Jensen—against the Eveleth Mines in a victory that established a precedent.
Niki Caro has directed the film, which was showcased at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival, from a screenplay by Michael Seitzman based on the book, "Class Action: The Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law." The result is a moving and thoroughly engrossing story celebrating the courage of someone who reluctantly rises to the occasion of standing up on principle and fighting, ultimately inspiring others to come along for the battle. It is also a harrowing tale of the terrible abuses to which the women at the mine were subjected to by men resentful of their presence and of the male employer attitude that let the guys get away with disgusting behavior, as well as on the toll taken on Josey and her family. Theron is terrific in her demanding role.
The style of the film works very well by weaving the legal action with flashbacks of how the case reached the courtroom. At first I thought a linear storytelling would be preferable, but what Caro and screenwriter Zeitzman accomplish is avoiding this becoming a clichéd courtroom drama. The film is much more subtle in manner and we are brought effectively into the personal and legal picture.
The atmosphere of women who need jobs working in a gritty mining environment is convincingly shown, as is the hostility of men who feel women are taking man’s work, as well as the callousness of union members and leadership toward Josey’s grievances. Even her women colleagues at first prefer to live with the abuse rather than create a fuss. The film also details the isolation of Josey in the community as an outsider, and the difficulty she has with her father, and her young son, who accepts the slanders said about her and hates her.
Woody Harrelson as Bill White is excellent as a lawyer portrayed as taking the case more for its groundbreaking challenge than for his genuine sympathy for the cause and for Josey. Frances McDormand gives a heartbreaking performance as Josey’s co-worker who tries to keep secret that she is dying of Lou Gehrig’s disease, and who is filled with resentment. Richard Jenkins imbues his portrait of Josey’s angry father with repressed feelings and with the love for his daughter that he eventually allows to surface. Sissy Spacek gives importance and conviction to her small but sympathetic role as Josey’s mother.
There is a tendency on the part of some critics to relegate a movie like this to a do-gooder cliché category. Nonsense. This is a powerful story with heart that has the ability to move one with its combination of principle and human concerns and it deserves to be considered high in the pecking order of recent films. A Warner Brothers release.
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