Movie Review: North Country
November 26th, 2005,North Country is a moving and memorable film about a grim subject: workplace sexual harassment. Set on the Iron Range of northern Minnesota, it stars Charlize Theron as Josey Aimes, a woman who takes a job at a taconite (iron ore) mine. After the men cruelly harass her and the other women at the mine, she leads her fellow female employees in a class-action lawsuit against their employer. Mining provides a large portion of their town’s employment, and no one is eager to take on the company. Bill White, a local lawyer and former hockey star, played by Woody Harrelson, reluctantly agrees to take the case.
Written by Michael Seitzman and directed by Niki Caro—who previously directed Whale Rider, the New Zealand film about another combative female—North Country is a tense film that shuttles back and fourth between several plot strands: the sexual harassment court trial, events at the mine and at Josey’s home, and Josey’s adolescence. The latter subplot is the weakest element of the film, and it leads to some heavy-handed melodrama when it comes into play in the courtroom. The film nevertheless rises above these weaknesses and manages to tell a compelling story.
Highlights of the film include the speech by Josey’s father to his union brothers, in which he belatedly heaps shame upon the men for their treatment of his daughter, and a courtroom speech by lawyer Bill White, in which he makes some trenchant points about power. Frances McDormand—returning to the role of a strong northern Minnesota woman, last played in Fargo—does a fine turn as a fellow employee and union leader. Sean Bean also has an excellent performance as her husband. His basement conversations with Josey’s son provide some of the movie’s better scenes. Josey’s boss, Arlen Pavich (Xander Berkeley), has an appropriately Slavic sounding last name for the Iron Range, and his appearance and speech come across as more authentic than those of the other actors.
As a representation of the region, the film does its job ably. It downplays local accents, which aren’t as broad as in the Coen brothers’ Fargo, for example, and it plays up the winter setting. It seems to be always winter in this film’s exterior shots—except for the outdoor mining scenes, which were filmed in New Mexico and lack snow and cold air. There are plenty of fine shots of the north woods and Iron Range towns. Bob Dylan fans will gain extra satisfaction from the film’s soundtrack, which features several songs by the Iron Range native.
The story is loosely based on the book Class Action: The Story of Lois Jensen and the Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law (2002), by Clara Bingham and Laura Leedy Gansler. The book concerned the women workers at the Eveleth Taconite Company in the late 1970s and 1980s. Those women initiated the first class-action sexual harassment lawsuit in the nation’s history.
North Country isn’t an easy film to watch, given its focus on women’s humiliation at the hands of men, but it’s a rewarding one. As a result of its strengths—vivid characters, memorable dialogue, and beautiful cinematography—it’s destined to become a lasting part of the Upper Midwest’s cinematic history.