Customer Reviews

North Country

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I really hate the tagline of North Country. "All she wanted to do was make a living. Instead she made history." It's terrible and doesn't at all capture what North Country is. Well, I suppose on one hand it does because that ultimately is the storyline of the movie but it's a tagline that makes me want to run away rather than buy a ticket. But enough about that.

North Country is based on actual events at the Eveleth Mines in Minnesota's Iron Range. Women were first allowed into the mines in the late 1970's and the stories that North Country deals with occurred all throughout the 80's and into the first class action sexual harassment lawsuit in the early 1990's. Director Niki Caro (Whale Rider) spoke with some of the women miners and had one, Lynn Sterle as an advisor for the film.

Charlize Theron plays Josey Aimes, a fictionalized character who comes to work at the Pearson Taconite mine where her father works and where her friend Glory (Frances McDormand) works driving truck. Josey is trying to raise her two children after leaving her husband and the mine will pay six times what she was making elsewhere. Glory tells her that Josey is going to have to deal with taunts and crude behavior and that the men do not want them at the mine. She believes, but she doesn't know. From the first moment she steps foot into the mine it becomes clear just how little they are wanted. The HR representative tells the new women that he doesn't want them there and if it wasn't for the Supreme Court, he wouldn't have hired them. But he'll give them a tour anyway and show them what the work is. The other workers call them crude names and Glory warns Josey that she may find degrading things in their lunch pails. Names are written on walls and lewd drawings are made. In general, the women are not made to feel welcome even though they are also members of the same union with the same rights as the men. But this is a boy's club and women are not welcome.

Josey complains to HR and he tells her that nothing will happen. She continues to complain about the behavior and things get worse. Much worse. They are threatened, attacked, degraded and I can only believe that what is shown in the movie is only scratching the surface as to what really went on in the mine. Finally Josey has had enough and finds a lawyer (Woody Harrelson) and decides to sue. But even the women are not supportive.

North Country mixes Josey's experience at the mine with footage from the lawsuit (preliminary hearings is my guess as it wasn't yet class action) and also makes the connection with Josey's story with the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill hearings that were going on at the same time.

This is a moving film that deals with an incredibly ugly subject matter. One would think that by the 1990's such behavior would not occur and that it wouldn't be put up with, but it did. The movie itself is well acted by Theron and the supporting cast. In particular the other women miners do a great job in showing toughness in the face of such degradation and why they would not want to speak up and how they can deal with the harassment.

Well made, well acted. I don't feel that North Country was especially manipulative. All film is manipulative and has a viewpoint and an agenda. The questions are: does the movie work? Is it any good? Does it feel true? Yes, to all. North Country is not a feel good movie by any measure and it isn't one that I can really say I enjoyed, but I enjoy any good movie and in that sense I did.

Some may feel that this is nothing more than Oscar bait with the poor woman overcoming degradation and rising to accomplish something big, and that it is touching the buttons that need to be touched to get awards...but that does not lessen the fact that the movie is rather good and that Theron will deserve whatever nominations she receives or awards she wins. She does an excellent job as does Niki Caro, Frances McDormand and the other actors. The movie only hits one note that felt like too much (what happened to Glory), but even that isn't a major point against it. Just something that felt off. It's the only thing that comes to mind.

NORTH COUNTRY is as chilling a story as the climate of northern Minnesota. We are told this movie is based on a true story--a landmark sexual harassment case that revolutionized corporate policy pertaining to gender equality nationwide. Disgusted and put out with the relentless, abusive, even violent treatment by her male coworkers (and superiors) in the male-dominated ore mining industry, single mom Josey Aimes (played wonderfully by Charlize Theron) dares to rock the boat by filing a lawsuit against her employer. It's a story that's been told a million times before--of one individual fighting fearlessly, even futilely, against the insurmountable odds of the corrupt status quo--yet NORTH COUNTRY succeeds admirably by virtue of its stellar cast and compelling plot.

Returning to her hometown after her marriage goes on the fritz, Josey dares to seek employment at the local strip mine, where the work is brutal, but the working conditions even more so. Her best friend, Glory (Frances McDormand), is a coworker--even the sole female union rep; Glory advises Josey to go with the flow, let the crude comments and sick jokes roll off one's back, but in due time, the "jokes" become malevolent, the pranks vicious, the work environment dangerous, intolerable. Josey files a grievance with the president of the company; his response is to pressure her to tender her resignation. Convinced she is "in the right," that she must fight, Josey enlists the aid of local attorney Bill White (Woody Harrelson, who in middle age has become magnificently bulldog ugly), and the first-ever class action sexual harassment suit is filed. The subsequent courtroom drama is uneven, often off topic (having to deal with an alleged rape in Josey's past), yet still riveting.

Sean Bean, Sissy Spacek, and Jeremy Renner are three jewels that head an outstanding supporting cast, but special kudos go to Richard Jenkins as Josey's brooding father. Hank Aimes, a longtime employee of the mine, has been estranged from his daughter since she gave birth out of wedlock as a teenager. He is opposed to her taking a job at his company, and as the pranks and sick jokes escalate, he remains silent. Yet once his daughter addresses his union brethren--alone and very much afraid--he comes to Josey's defense in fine fashion. Made me proud to be a papa.

Told from the perspective of the early 1990s, NORTH COUNTRY tells its story, and as good as its story is, it still left me scratching my head. Back in those days, I, too, was in a male-dominated industry (executive of a trucking company). Following the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas culture storm, followed by passage of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), we certainly saw the writing on the wall, and instantly adopted sexual harassment policies and walked on eggshells to make sure harassment or wrongful termination claims were never brought to bear against us. So I find it intriguing, to say the least, that in such a climate this particular mining employer was so callous and insensitive. As the old adage goes, this company was cruisin' for a bruisin', and in the Great White North, you get ice cubes with that.
--D. Mikels, Author, WALK-ON

who bashed this film because they must have been on prescription drugs. This film will make you angry with the way grown men used to get away with anything, and the way they can behave like idiots, not just the male miners and mine owners but the way Josie's father blames her for her husband's abusiveness. My husband and I watched it together and even he got disgusted with the middle-school pranks the male miners played on the women. The flashback rape scene was poignant while disturbing but this entire film made me appreciate the sexual harassment policies every employer now has (that I never before thought about). The women this film was based on were trailblazers for the rest of us. Worth It.

In the tradition of 'Norma Rae', 'Silkwood', and 'Erin Brockovich' comes a movie which is entertaining, action-packed, and muckraking all in one. Michael Seitzman tells the real-life story of Lois Jenson (Charlize Theron). Jenson encouraged her female co-workers to collectively protest their workplace harassment.

The newly divorced single mother had returned to her Minnesota hometown looking for a way to support her family (Sammy and Karen). Upon the recommendation of an old friend Glory (Frances McDormand) she becomes a miner. The hardest challenges at the new job did not come from the physical labor however. Instead they were from some of the male miners because those individuals became threatened by their new colleagues.

Incidentally, these men are led by Bobby Sharp (played by Jeremy Renner) who used to date Josey in high school.

After being sexually harassed on the job, Josey Aimes (a composite sketch of Lois Jenson) files a lawsuit against the Eveleth Mines and rallies some other female co-workers to her cause. These women face every conceivable odd against them in a modern "David vs. Goliath" epic. As the 'ringleader' of the protesting women, Aimes inevitably takes the brunt of it.

Her crusade draws disapproval from many people in the town and many of her own colleagues at the mine. Her own parents Alice and Hank Aimes (Sissy Spacek and Richard Jenkins) just want Josey to accept things as they have been. Adding insult to injury, her own personal life is put under intensive scrutiny; what 'kind' of woman charges sexual harassment? Even Glory encourages her to let their mistreatment go.

Yet, she perseveres and the women are victorious. In Jenson vs. Eveleth a 1997 court ruling said that the abuse which was received in those mines was a concerted campaign to completely destroy the women.

Niki Caro's excellent directing prevented North Country from being a downer and/or a soapfest. Theron and her co-actors also understood that this was a serious film, and thus did not attempt to ham things up for the camera. North Country even won the praises of the real-life Jenson who said it was close to her real-life experiences. She liked that this screenplay emphasized she and the other protesting women received support from some of the men in that same community.

Glory's husband Kyle (Sean Ben) was a miner up until a dehabilitating accident laid him off. More ambiguous is Bill White (Woody Harelson) a high school hockey star who returns to his hometown after working in New York as a lawyer. Bill initially turns her request for a class action lawsuit down, but then accepts because it is `something different'. Josey pointedly says she draws her own inspiration from the then-current Anita Hill hearings's dramatization of workplace sexual harassment before national audiences.

It's ironic that the film is being promoted as 'inspired' from the book Class Action, because Jenson remains critical of that account's accuracy. People wanting an accurate account of her journey only need this movie---which she has personally praised. It's always a good sign when the real-life people praise the works which are supposed to tell about them.

With awesome music by Bob Dylan and Kim Carnes (among others) this film will definitely have you wanting to instigate some 'trouble' of your own.

There is no doubt that Charlize Theron and Frances McDormand have become two of the best actors in film today. Much like other actors such as Tom Hanks and Hilary Swank, they are able to play blue collar, rough hewn characters very well. North Country concerns the working conditions female workers at the northern Minnesota Pearson Taconite Mine suffered in the 70's and 80's, and resulted in one of the first sexual harassment suits filed in the United States. While North Country is a decent movie, it also has moments where it becomes a little tedious and rushed to finish. For instance Woody Harrelson's character is introduced then almost forgotten until the last half-hour of the movie. There is also an ordinary property to North Country that keeps it from taking off and prevents it from becoming a better film like Norma Rae or Erin Brockovich. Those points aside, in this age of movies where a cast of penguins is the most interesting movie to see over the past couple of months, North Country is worth watching.

I loved this film, which made me empathize for the characters.

Maybe the strongest scene was when Josey reads her defense in the miner's union, I guess that was her tougher ordeal. Some details are just great, like the decoration. For instance, the naked woman calendar on the wall of her HR superior's desk, the one that should take her complaints... Or the boss' attitude, chivalrous at first, but aggressively patronizing later, when $ was at stake. Her coworker "Sherry"/ Michelle Monaghan is the image of vulnerability, I just can't believe some of her scenes were cut out!! Remember her at the trailer, with her mum.

It's interesting how women were indifferent if not outright hostile to her, instead of acting in their own best interest. As the scene when they shift conversation to cosmetics, ironically, to take away the mine's dust. In contrast to the camaraderie and welcome jokes, and their singing at the bar. Frances McDormand is great, a perfect actress. Nobody escapes from machismo and conventionality, definitely nor her father and son. But neither her mum, nor Sherry (ex: "Are you gay?" scene with Harrelson at the bar). No male defends her, not even the "friendly/ humane" good guy (and balding :) ). Anybody who has lived in the countryside ("interior" in Spanish) knows how it is like: the daytime parties with too much food, replaced by strong drinks at night. Even the kind of music, obliged social gathering (Hockey, in this case), gossip is everybody's business, a way of life. "Tradition" = Conservatism.

Bill White/ Harrelson's cynical lawyer was fine (fun how Americans obsess with alcohol as a sign of "Decadence" :) ). Like when he took the case for: "it was never done before" = Not for her or "the cause": "Can you live with that?". But, although pragmatically, he turned the case by provoking "Bobby Sharp" (Dickensian name!)/ Jeremy Renner, the most disgusting character of the whole film to my taste. You only have to see him to know he's "up to no good". Sean Bean's "hard man-to-man" talk to his son was brilliant, a low-key masterpiece. Probably that was a turning point in the film, when Josey's family life really starts to get straight. The "first decent meal" and "first dingy house" are, again, only understandable by someone who has lived through it. The tagline, for once, isn't misleading. She's not "a heroine", instead she's an ordinary woman forced to take extraordinary measures. The essence of epic, I guess. Why associate "epic genre" with men!?!

Men like Sharp seem to be blind to the "signs" that people give to say "no", the signature of sociopaths according to Daniel Goleman in EI. That's the whole point of the movie: "what do you do when you're surrounded by people who are so accustomed to mistreating each other". So much that they'll blame the victim, to the point of distorting the facts, all for the sake of the "herd". The dialogue between Bobby and Kyle at the bar was just great, "philosophical". As the mumbled joke What is this, a "pet cemetery?" :)! (Related to his role in "Natural born killers"?). I also learn in that scene that the saying "you don't ... where you eat" is not Spanish but, I'm afraid, "Universal"...
Her mum Alice/ Spacek does act correctly at the right moments: giving her some $ x the kids while her daughter was unemployed: "I'm still your mum" and "leaving" her husband when he was a real ass. But, in general, she's not very SYMPATHETIC, when she justifies Josey's beating husband, reminding her of their legal status, or turning off the TV when showing the timely "Anita Hill" trial.

Images are great, specially the aerial shots of the mine, not far away from Dickens's Coketown (Hard Times). Music is good too, not only the one composed by the Argentinean Gustavo Santaolalla.

As the Amazon reviewer "Joe Sherry" says: "it doesn't matter if it's manipulative, as long as the film works". I just couldn't agree more! I agree that things must have been way worse down there, and that one may enjoy a film even if it doesn't provide a conventional "good time". Also great: "She believes, but she doesn't know".
But, unlike him, I still don't really get why her coworkers were so narrow minded...

On the other hand, the other "spotlight review" (D. Mikels's) contains two SPOILERS... luckily by now I skip reviewer's stuff until AFTER I have seen a movie... Can't you do something about it? Look at how Sherry "says without saying" when he writes: "what happened to Glory". Was it THAT hard, review's editor?

In contrast, NYT's helpful reader reviewer is from Eveleth (where the film took place), so I think his/her words should close this review: "It's a tough place to grow up in but a beautiful place to visit. For now I will always be a tourist (...)".

I can think of no better film to celebrate the international women's day, when so much has changed, but so much remains the same. Enjoy!

It's hard to believe that the events portrayed in this film happened in 1989, a mere 17 years ago. Not only is this a tale of sexual harassment, but also examines the life of a typical lower class woman, so pretty she is always suspected of being a slut, married too early to the wrong guy, abused but way too ashamed to speak of it, not enough education to take anything but minimum wage jobs. Such women are trapped, but Josie decided not to be. Theron does a wonderful job portraying a mixture of fragility and strength, and Frances McDormand is great as her tough but feminine friend. The film ends with a typically unrealistic and dramatic courtroom scene, but nevertheless is very moving. And the labor union meeting where Josie's father finally shows his true colors was great. Serious, but worth it.

I'm not certain a person can "enjoy" this movie unless they are completely insensitive. Some scenes are disturbing, so definately would not recommend for young viewers, but overall the picture was emotionally thought provoking. The acting is superb. Charlize Theron gave an outstanding performance, as did most of the cast, and I was particularly impressed with Sean Bean's ability to maneuver his heavy Yorkshire into MinnesOta slang so convincingly. As for a few things that could have been improved upon, there are times when the storyline lags; simply using the "F" word half as many times could have saved 15-minutes.

NORTH COUNTRY is a tough movie to watch - and that is why it is so fine and important. The story exudes out of the characters surrounding the first class action suit for sexual harassment in the workplace and it would be difficult to imagine a more dour and gritty depiction of what women iron miners faced in Northern Minnesota than that director Niki Caro (Whale Rider) has molded out of Clara Bingham's book and Michael Seitzman's screenplay. Though overly long (in excess of two hours) the film does successfully drive home its points and its issues.

Josey (Charlize Theron) is an abused wife who after yet another beating form her husband takes her two children back to her hometown in Northern Minnesota where her mother (Sissy Spacek) and disturbing defiant father (Richard Jenkins) still view her as an embarrassment to the family: Josey became pregnant at age 16 and states she 'doesn't know the child's father'. Josey's only concern is to make a living for her children and not be reliant on her parents. She works as a hair washer in a beauty salon until her old friend Glory (Frances McDormand) recognizes her and urges her to apply for work in the iron mines were wages are good despite a disturbing atmosphere. Reluctantly Josey agrees to apply, much to her father's disdain, and she moves her children away from her parents to live with Glory and her adoring husband Kyle (Sean Bean). Once at work Josey encounters the disgusting macho miners who constantly sexually harass the female minors. The situation deteriorates until finally Josey cannot tolerate it and she hires the sweet ex hockey athlete turned lawyer Bill (Woody Harrelson) to take on her case. What proceeds in the trial for the class action suit and a tough trial it is. The fact that the bravery and courage of Josey and her colleagues results in a 'win' is almost a given as the film is based on historical fact.

Charlize Theron once again delivers a fine performance and in part due to the brilliant support of the supporting cast gives us a character to remember. Frances McDormand, Sissy Spacek and Richard Jenkins deliver superb portrayals and the large supporting cast is first rate. For much of the film the viewer gets the feeling that we've been here before (many other films about the mines and the traumas here played are familiar), but the narrative is powerful and in the end sweeps all others aside as a statement that needed desperately to be made. Recommended. Grady Harp, February 06

Women, for the most part, have faced some major problems during the first half of the 20th century (including events that occurred beforehand & certain situations that continue to thrive even in today's world). Some of these problems include suffrage, second-class citizenship & job security - the latter subject being the primary focus of "North Country". The movie deals with a group of working-class women facing an upheaval struggle while working at a Minnesota factory. The discrimination these women encounter is apparent throughout the film, & is captured beautifully & theatrically, leaving no stone unturned. The sexual harassment premise will leave the average viewer on the edge of their seat, leaving one to ponder the fate of these women on the road to nowhere, with a slimmering ray of hope off somewhere in the distance. Featuring outstanding performances from both Charlize Theron (as a lead worker & advocate of conditions in the workplace) & Frances McDormand (as a worker later debilitated as a result of the plant's negligence), "North Country" has enough stamina to maintain a continual flow of dramatic nuances to keep one from falling asleep at anytime during the run of the picture. Kudos to Woody Harrelson (as an attorney) for providing one of the film's most upstanding displays of character, & a rather moving portrayal at that. Based on actual events, "North Country" could very well be in the running for earning some serious hardware at award ceremonies before 2005 is history. The soundtrack is not to be taken lightly, either - featuring songs by the likes of Bob Dylan (a Minnesota native) & various other musical artists which deserve more than honorable mention raves. This is one movie that's destined to be in one's all-important DVD library, that's for certain!