“North Country” is a film scientifically engineered to be Oscar-worthy. And it’s a sure thing at least one little gold statue lies in “North Country’s” future, mostly because Charlize Theron is a great actress and the plot is “inspired” by a true story. Despite this, “North Country” is not such a great movie.

Theron stars as Josey Aimes, a mother of two who has left her abusive husband to stay with her parents in rural Minnesota. She meets up with Glory (Frances McDormand), an old high school friend who suggests Josey take a job at the local iron mine. She does, much to the consternation of her father, who also works at the mine. Josey and the rest of the handful of women working at the mine face relentless harassment at the hands of their male co-workers. The men scratch obscenities into the walls of the women’s locker room and smear shit everywhere; later, a portable toilet occupied by a woman is tipped over by a cadre of men. Josey complains to the mine’s management and later, to the mine’s owners, but they do little more than ask her to resign. Through Glory, Josey meets Bill White (Woody Harrelson), a kindly lawyer and former local hockey star who helps her bring a history-making lawsuit against the mine.

For an actress like Theron, the role of Josey is a big turkey dinner to sink her acting chops into and she does a remarkable job, inhabiting the character of Josey fully and completely. If Theron is nominated for an Oscar (which is a safe bet), then McDormand should get a nod for best supporting actress as well. As Glory, McDormand serves as the film’s true backbone, an independent firebrand who doesn’t let anything, be it oppressive male co-workers or debilitating disease, stop her from making her own decisions. In fact, there’s very little to knock about any of the actors in the film, all of whom are so convincing and real that the only thing that intrudes on the viewer’s suspension of disbelief is the plot itself.

It’s in basic storytelling that “North Country” falters. Director Niki Caro (“Whalerider”) and screenwriter Michael Seitzman derive the film from the book “Class Action,” the account of Lois Jenson’s decade-long sexual harassment lawsuit against the Eveleth Mines. The film does a disservice to the complex, drawn-out case by making the whole affair clichéd and over-simplified. The broad strokes are painted thusly: women are strong and resilient, except when men are oppressing them, and men are weak and cowardly, except when women shame them into being better.

Seitzman is also guilty of heaping an excess of abuse onto the protagonist so that she’s more sympathetic. It’s apparently not enough that Josey faced incessant harassment and degradation at the mine—she was also abused by her ex-husband and was raped as a teenager. Once Glory is revealed to have Lou Gehrig’s disease (though, it should be noted, that did actually happen to one of Jenson’s friends), “North Country” feels like it’s trying too damn hard. To top it off, there’s no resolution. The movie just sort of ends with a vague sense that something important has been accomplished, marginalizing the years of legal and emotional torment the plaintiffs in the Jenson case faced.  

directed by: Niki Caro
starring: Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand, Sean Bean, Woody Harrelson and Sissy Spacek
rated: R for sexually harassing dialogue and violence and some bad language