Film Reviews

North Country

• Rating:
• Director: Niki Caro.
• Starring: Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sissy Spacek.
• Details: US, 120mins, 15s.

Escaping her abusive husband, Josey Aimes (Theron) returns to her family home in Northern Minnesota with her two kids in tow. Recommended by her friend Glory (McDormand), Josey gets a job at the local mine where she joins only a handful of women workers. Soon she is subjected to sexual harassment at the hands of the men at the mine but finds to her surprise that her female co-workers have put up with this kind of treatment for years. As the insults (scrawling expletives on their lockers in excrement) and harassment (Josey suffers from near rape by an ex-boyfriend working at the mine) continue, Josey refuses to stay silent and approaches lawyer Bill White (Harrelson) to file the first class action sexual harassment law suit in American history. Basing her film on a true story of a woman overcoming insurmountable odds and having a previous Oscar winner (Theron) in the lead role will help Niki Caro's North Country considerably. Where the film fails is that it never rises above the hooting and hollering male jerk stereotypes. Men are reduced to lines such as "Someone is going to get killed because of those women" and "Give me one with a nice body - no fatties" and other such derogatory statements. "Did he catch you with another woman?" Josey's father remarks at the vicious bruise her husband left on her cheek. Theron, though, never lets her performance slide into cliche as she never lets her anger at the situation get the better of her, proving her Oscar turn a couple of years ago was no fluke. We've seen this movie before folks; the rote speeches, the incomprehensible stupidity of males; there's even a "I was sexually harassed/I'm Spartacus" stand up in the court room. Can do better.

Review by Gavin Burke