Theron and McDormand Shine in the North Country
North Country, the story of Josey Aimes (Charlize Theron in her Oscar nominated role) and her revolutionary fight against her workplace for sexual harassment has to be one of the most powerful films I’ve seen in years.
Josey, a young single mother of two comes to Northern Minnesota as the film commences in hopes to find work. Luckily, she runs into Glory (Frances McDormand) who so happens to be the first woman ever to work in the Iron Mines and so she persuades Josey to work at the mine. However, once she arrives at the mine Josey quickly finds that the mine isn’t that great. The men in the mine, feeling threatened by the women taking their jobs, are verbally abusive, not to mention physically.
Despite her fight to stay with the company, Josey eventually quits and files a lawsuit with lawyer Bill White (Woody Harrelson), but with most of the other women refusing to lose their jobs Josey has a long fight ahead of her. Charlize Theron yet again shows that she is one of the top actresses with her riveting performance as Josey while Frances McDormand, back with her Fargo accent, has never been better as the tough, aged truck driver of the mine who becomes stricken with Lou Gherig’s disease.
The men in the film also put on good performances. Woody Harrelson is great as Josey’s lawyer/ love interest and Richard Jenkins from HBO’s “Six Feet Under” couldn’t be better as Josey’s father who goes from despising his own daughter to standing by her side.
Niki Caro did a superb job directing the film, choosing to show the story chronologically juxtaposed with scenes of the court battle. However, no scene in my humble opinion is better pulled off than that of when Josey must walk to the top of the conveyor of the mine. In this scene Caro pieces together a collage of quick cuts of her walking up, sweating and frightened for what lies ahead, giving it a claustrophobic-like feel to it.
Unlike most movies based on real events, Caro was smart in not trying to emulate the exact events, but rather to create a story circulating around the same scenario. Much depth was added to the film by incorporating a family drama between Josey and her disapproving teenaged son that doesn’t seem tacked on but instead brings a raw sensibility to her character and to their respective relationship.
On the disc itself, there are several deleted scenes that unlike most DVD’s are actually worth watching. The making-of documentary “Stories from North Country” on the other hand, while it is an okay documentary that included the real women in which the film is based, didn’t really add anything that I didn’t already know after seeing the movie.
While it may not be a film garnering the big bucks at the box office, North Country is an important film people must see. It captures the emotions and sticks the topic of sexual harassment in your face, but it refuses to make all men at the mine look evil, which is exactly how it should’ve been done.
