When Josie Aimes approaches a lawyer to press charges of sexual harassment against the town mine, he reduces her crisis to a legal stereotype: "It's the nuts or sluts defense -- you're either crazy, or you deserved it."
But as a female employee in a workplace with a male-to-female ratio of 30 to 1, Josie (Charlize Theron) is not insane. Nor is she deserving of the sexual assault, the nasty graffiti or the poisonous epithets that haunt her and the other women every day on the job.
North Country is the fictionalized and inspirational story of Jenson v. Eveleth Mines, the 1984 landmark class-action lawsuit against sexual harassment in the workplace.
Due to powerful parallels, the film could be seen as a hybrid between the heroic saga of Erin Brockovich and the distressing drama of Monster. Like Brockovich, Josie lives hand-to-mouth, baby on her hip, bruise on her cheek in a working-class community. As the feisty heroine, she grapples with the insidious injustice of the workplace and legally brings sexism to its knees.
As in Monster, which earned her an Academy Award, Theron keenly immerses herself in an unglamorous role that begs to ask whether any amount of dirt, grime or blood can conceal her beauty. In North Country, harrowing scenes of sexual violence haunt both Josie and the community.
North Country's real violence, and hence real force, exists not in the moments of physical penetration, groping or prodding but in the lethal attitudes of the community. Lines from Josie's boss command, "Work hard, keep your mouth shut and take it like a man," and epitomize the toxic sexism that infects people's minds and hearts.
The film merits praise, though, for its refusal to condense the problem of prejudice into simplistic dichotomies. The males are not all sinners, and the females are not all saints.
North Country also honestly considers the internal dissention and fear among the female miners. After the ladies' room has been vandalized with excremental slurs, Peg thrusts a mop towards Josie and tells her, "It's your mess, now clean it up."
Stomach-turning scenes of occupational torture -- revolting surprises in lunchboxes, the absence of boundaries between male hands and female genitalia -- demolish any trace of the mining corporation's innocence.
Yet North Country is guilty of courtroom melodrama. With a plot this poignant, the closing statement-turned-sermon of Bill White (Woody Harrelson) belies and disrespects a story that stands on its own. His didactic preaching to "stand up and tell the truth" both patronizes the audience and lacks credibility.
Although North Country boasts an exceptional cast, some actors are trapped by disconnected and one-dimensional characters. Even the venerable Sissy Spacek and Frances McDormand are stilted by the writing, which seems more bent on a social agenda than fleshed-out characters. Certain changes of heart mystify the viewer; the sudden decision of Bill White to represent Josie and the spontaneously fervent speech from her father (Richard Jenkins) seem random and perplexing.
From the bleak eternity of snow to the open vowels of the Midwestern accent, Minnesotan culture permeates the film. The soundtrack, dominated by the blue-collar blaze of Bob Dylan ballads, complements the fierceness of the story.
The themes of bigotry, fear and abuse in North Country, set in 1989, still resonate loud and clear today. But the film's tendency to overstate its message ruins its potential for excellence. Like Josie's boss, the film beats its point into the ground. Like Josie, the audience is not deserving of such moralistic lectures.
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