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What’s the Story?

Reviewed byCynthia Fuchs
When Josey Aimes (Charlize Theron) finally leaves her abusive husband, her future looks bleak. With her two kids, she relocates to the last place she ever wanted to go, her parents' home in Northern Minnesota. She takes a job down at the mine, where her friend Glory (Frances McDormand) serves as a union rep, supported emotionally by her husband Kyle (Sean Bean). Josey soon faces ridicule and rebuke from her male coworkers, their wives, her employers, and even her dad. The other women miners have resigned themselves to the routine. Still, everyone but Glory blames Josey for the increase in abuse, which the film shows in grotesque detail. Childish, crude, and horrific, these tactics only gird Josey's resistance. She convinces Bill White (Woody Harrelson), a onetime local hockey star and New York lawyer, to help her bring a class action lawsuit against the company.

Is It Any Good?

3
Boldly melodramatic and occasionally overwrought, NORTH COUNTRY means well, it doesn't trust viewers to keep up (and honestly, it's not moving that fast). Laying on cruelties, climactic plot turns, and tragic figures (Josey sheds earnest tears in the courtroom for gallant supporters as much as for brief, tension-building failures), the film overstates its case -- especially in the courtroom scenes – when less is more effective.

As the film more or less locks you into Josey's perspective, it appears that even the bleak environment (effected by Chris Menges' splendid grey imagery) signifies her perpetual exhaustion. And the sheer weight of her burden is emphasized by director Niki (Whale Rider) Caro's soap operatic inflections: extended takes of pained faces, scenes showcasing family tensions, and plaintive Bob Dylan sound track music all make plain Josey's heavy burden.

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