The year is 1989 and Josey Aimes (Charlize Theron) is a battered woman who escapes to the tightly-knit, hardscrab-ble Northern Minnesota mining town where she was born, determined to raise her two children on her own. To that end, she takes a job at the iron mine that is the lifeblood of the community; a place where, thanks to a locally unpopular Supreme Court decision, women have been forcibly integrated into the dwindling workforce. The men are none too happy about what they see as an outright invasion of their turf, and some of them express their displeasure with very unseemly behavior (sex toys left in lunch pails, obscenities scrawled with feces on walls, and much worse). The constant harassment eventually gets the better of Josie and she decides, a la “Norma Rae,” to take on her abusers and, in effect, an entire community and its culture.
The very talented Niki Caro (“Whale Rider”) ably directs from a script by Michael Seitzman based on the book “Class Action: The Landmark Case that Changed Sexual Harassment Law.” On the surface, this is a classic underdog story about the struggle for equality and human dignity, and a very good one at that. Caro and her team also layer in several other very compelling dynamics including Josey’s problematic relationship with her father (an excellent Richard Jenkins, “Six Feet Under”), and her young son’s struggle to cope with the uncertainty of lineage along with his mother’s rapidly deteriorating reputation.
Powerhouse performances abound. Theron is a shoe-in for another Oscar nomination, and it can be argued she’s better here than she was in “Monster.” Jenkins is a revelation as the traditionalist father torn between his commitment to his fellow miners and his love for a daughter he feels has disappointed him at every turn. Sean Bean (”The Lord of the Rings” trilogy) makes the most of a reprieve from playing cookie-cutter villains, and the always-rock-steady Frances McDormand delivers as the film’s touchstone. The ending is Hollywood-hokey, the story derivative of “Erin Brockovich” and “Silkwood” among others, yet it’s so well-executed that “North Country” rates as one of the year’s best studio pictures.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 21, 2005. Read the original PDF.