>>REVIEW
NORTH COUNTRY
STARRING Charlize Theron, Woody Harrelson and Francis McDormand
DIRECTED BY Niki Caro
Opens Friday October 21
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North Country is a fairy tale. Officially, it’s a fictionalized account of the Jenson vs. Eveleth Mines lawsuit, the first major sexual harassment case in the United States – but this film is a work of imagination.
Josey Aimes (Charlize Theron) is a single mother who flees an abusive marriage and returns to the town where she grew up. Her friend Glory (Francis McDormand) helps her find a lucrative job in the local mine, where Josey’s newfound happiness is shattered when she becomes the target of sexist abuse. When she proves incapable of "taking it like a man," her personal life begins to crumble. Eventually, she enlists the aid of local lawyer and ex-hockey star Bill White (Woody Harrelson), and together they launch a class-action sexual harassment lawsuit.
Visually, North Country is a dream. Director Niki Caro has a patient eye – what the ocean was to her most famous film, Whale Rider, white plumes of industrial waste are to North Country. The Minnesota mining town is shown in aerial shots as desolate as they are lovely. The acting is top-notch and more than one scene is utterly gripping.
Problems arise when North Country attempts to become a character-driven film, allowing Josey’s personal history and family problems to smother the court narrative. The film wanders and frequently feels didactic – its villains are cartoonish and instances of workplace harassment are presented like exhibits.
Despite Theron’s best efforts, Josey is usually the least interesting character in a scene. She’s so gorgeous, so tough, so mistreated – it’s a role made for an Oscar in a film made for an Oscar. It pushes all the buttons it can reach. The casting of Theron is curious in itself, because she may be a fine actor, but she is hardly a convincing everywoman. In fact, there’s something sinister about the decision to cast an actor of such stunning conventional beauty in a film that purports to address systemic sexism.
North Country tells an important story, but a severely abridged one. Perhaps the day will come when we can be served feminist tales in slightly less pretty packages. |
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