SYNOPSICS
North Country (2005) is a English movie. Niki Caro has directed this movie. Charlize Theron,Jeremy Renner,Frances McDormand,Thomas Curtis are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2005. North Country (2005) is considered one of the best Drama movie in India and around the world.
1989. Josey Aimes takes her two kids, Sammy and Karen, and leaves her abusive husband Wayne, to return to her northern Minnesota home town. On a chance meeting with her old friend Glory Dodge who works as a driver and union rep at the mine operated by Pearson Taconite and Steel, Josey decides to work at the mine as well, work that is dominated by men in number and in tone. She does so to be able to stand on her own two feet for the first time in her life, something she probably could not have done if she remained in a job washing hair at a beauty salon. Working at the mine does not sit well with her father, Hank Aimes, who also works at the mine and who, like the other male workers, believes she is taking a job away from a man. Hank has believed that all Josey's problems are of her own doing, ever since she, unmarried, had Sammy while she was still in high school. Josey has always stated that she does not know who Sammy's biological father is, which fosters Hank's attitude about her. ...
More
North Country (2005) Reviews
'What are you supposed to do when the ones with all the power are hurting those with none?'
I thought this would be one of those issue-based legal drama movies about sexual harassment where the main character is harassed a couple of times and then she eventually fights back. I was apprehensive about buying it. I mean I wanted to see it but whether it was worth buying was another thing. After checking, I decided to gamble. I bought the DVD and watched it and discovered that 'North Country' is about much more than sexual harassment. As the film progresses towards the end, we are addressed more important themes such as the consequence of rape on the relationship between a mother and child and how her silence is used as a weapon against her. However, while these issues are interestingly dealt with and fit the story they slightly deviate from the main theme of sexual harassment. Niki Caro does a fine job in directing. Her intentions are sincere. Perhaps the script could have been a little tighter and the courtroom sequences could have been better handled as they are a little too dramatic and unrealistic, especially the judge letting White to argue his case that way. In addition to that, the case became more about Josey's sex life rather than the actual harassment and terrorizing in the workplace. Even though this provides a twist in the story and explains a lot of Josie's situation, it takes away from the main theme. Also most of the male characters have been caricatured. I understand the film is about Josey which may be the reason why these characters weren't given much attention but even Josey's father is portrayed as a misogynist and all of a sudden he is shown to have a change of heart. It would have liked to see this characters inner conflict as he plays a crucial role in Josey's life. In the technical front, the cinematography is smooth and gives us some spectacular glimpse of the snowy landscape and the coal mines. The sound effect and country-feel soundtrack are quite good too. Charlize Theron deserves all the recognition she got for giving a strong, confidant and heartfelt performance as the brave hard-working and headstrong Josey Aimes. She breathes fire into her role and, along with Frances McDormand, she's the heart of the film. McDormand performs naturally and her tragic character provides some great comic relief. She has some witty one-liners that bring a smile. While most of the guys are portrayed as nasty sleazy men, Sean Bean's Kyle is the complete opposite. Nonetheless, the actor does a fine job (quite a deviation from what the type of roles he's more famous for). Harrelson's Bill White suffers from poor characterization. His character is a bit too sketchy. Harrelson tries the best with what he's got and turns in a decent enough performance. Richard Jenkins too suffers from poor writing. Sissy Spacek has a tiny role but she has a subtle dignified presence and her character contributes to one of the major turning points of the story. Rusty Schwimmer and Michelle Monaghan are adequate. 'North Country' isn't an easy film to watch because of the explicit scenes of sexual harassment and the haunting rape scene but it is a relevant film. Not only is it about women's rights, it's about everyone's right to live a life with dignity, to work with dignity. It's about standing up against injustice rather than turning a blind eye. It's about protecting your loved ones and fighting for what you believed in. Though 'North Country' isn't without its share of flaws (it is a little preachy and sometimes too dramatic), it brings forth some important themes well enough and with the support of good direction and strong performances, it's worth watching.
NORTH COUNTRY--Inhospitable Country For Women
..........................................................from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA., CALI, COLOMBIA...and ORLANDO, FL North Country is stark proof that truth is stranger than fiction. The Director, New-Zealander Niki Caro (Whale Rider), perhaps a very apt directorial choice, being a woman, yet at the same time, precisely not being American! In the mines of Minnesota in 1989, only 3% of the workers are women. There is a whole confluence of constantly orchestrated pressure applied against all female miners intended to get them to resign. Charlize Theron (Who won the Oscar for best actress in MONSTER in the role of the only female serial-killer in U.S. history, Florida's Aileen Wuornos) as expected, is absolutely magnificent as Josey Aimes, a woman whose only motivation is wanting to provide a better life for her two children. The fight is quite a tough one for Josey. At first, everyone seems clearly to be set against her. Neither her friends, nor his parents, not even her own children give her their support! But Josey is a very stubborn human being who does not permit anything or anyone to discourage her. Gradually, her unshakable character, her unparalleled courage and the enormity of the injustice committed against her finally begin working in her favor. North Country at times does exhibit some rather lethargic moments, but the cast and the quality of the story are so outstanding that is easy to overlook this minor flaw. Frances McDormand (1996 Oscar winner for FARGO) also shines in the multifaceted role of best friend; coworker, representing women's interests among union workers and victim of one of the worst evils occasionally affecting mine workers: Lung Cancer! Woody Harrelson (Natural Born Killers) is convincing as the ex-football player town hero turned lawyer who takes on Josey's case. Sissy Spacek (Carrie: original version) as the dutiful Mom and Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under) as the skeptical dad. Almost everyone who works or has worked recently in the United States knows that the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace is something that is taken extremely seriously. This is thanks, in large part, to Josey Aimes, and the struggle she was forced to wage against that Minnesota mining company over 30 years ago! It is really worth traveling to North Country to see both Charlize Theron's and Frances McDormand's Oscar Nomination performances! 8*...ENJOY!/DISFRUTELA!
Class action suit
Josey Aimes, the beautiful young woman at the center of this story, has been betrayed by almost everyone in her short life. As we meet her, she is abandoning a situation that has turned bad in the home she shares with an abusive man. She packs whatever she can and her two kids, heading north to the home of her parents; she is trying to put her life on track. Josey's father still bears a grudge against his daughter because the unwanted pregnancy of the girl, who never revealed who was the man responsible for a child she decided to have. Instead of finding a nice environment when she applies, and is accepted, working at the coal mine in Northern Minnesota, Josey becomes the one where all the men loved to pick on. The miners resent the intrusion of women in what has been a male dominated work place up to 1975, when women were allowed in the mines. Her former friend, Bobby Sharp, seems to be the ring leader who makes her life a living hell. Complaining to the president of the mine, only gets Josey deeper in trouble as the chauvinist owner tells her point blank he has no time for her accusations about what's really going on. At the same time, all the other women in the mine, who are also ridiculed by the male workers, turn against Josey. They don't want to lose jobs that pay well, and even though they are also ridiculed by the macho men, they tolerate the situation and don't want to make waves. When Josey feels she has had enough, she quits the job that she needs badly. Glory, her best friend and ally, comes down with a rare liver disease, so there is no help from her. When Josey has tried everything, she goes to Bill White, a lawyer, hoping he would be able to help her sue the mine and get her job back. Josey and Bill have to deal with a formidable opponent, as Mr. Pearson, the owner, has a lot of money and powerful friends and lawyers to deal with problems. The judge, who is hearing the proposal tells Bill and Josey he will consider a class action suit if at least three persons come forward, something that seems almost impossible when they start the arguments. Josey and Bill persevere against all odds to prove their case which result in a monumental defeat for the mine, clearly taking Josey's position. During the trial, the defense introduces a witness, one of Josey's high school teachers, as a character witness. This, in turn, triggers a chain of events that no one expected. Also, Bill White questions Bobby Sharp about his role in a school incident in which he didn't come to Josey's help when the girl badly needed it. Niki Caro, whose previous film we had greatly admired, seemed to us the wrong choice for directing "North Country". We just couldn't imagine she would be able to pull it off, working in another environment and a situation that probably presented a challenge to the way she worked. In spite of all that, Ms. Caro succeeded with this movie that even though it recalls other films about female sexual harassment that came before. Ms. Caro's film is made even better by the cinematographer Chris Menges, who is one of the best men working today. The music of Gustavo Santaolalla, plus the atmospheric popular songs in the film, work well in the context. The screen play by Michael Seitzman is based on the novel that chronicled a real case that serves as the model for "North Country". Charlize Theron appears to love to take chances. Ms. Theron, a beautiful and sophisticated woman, doesn't mind changing some of the couture clothes she wears to transform herself as this working class woman. She gives an honest performance as Josey. Frances McDormand, who plays Glory, is only seen during the first half of the film. Sean Bean, Woody Harrelson, Jeremy Renner, Linda Edmond, Thomas Curtis, Sissy Spacek and Richard Jenkins, among the large cast, are seen in supporting roles. Judging by some of the comments submitted to IMDb, it appears there are some people who must have hated this film. Frankly, while "North Country" could have used stronger material, especially in the court proceedings, it is an engaging movie that will satisfy its audience.
An important issue dumbed and numbed
I hate to give North Country a relatively low vote because this is such an important issue, and I appreciate the good intentions of director Niki Caro, and the A-list actors who no doubt took a big pay cut when agreeing to take a role. On the other hand, I feel disappointed, a little angry, as well as insulted as a woman that this hugely important story was made into a melodrama that flattens out what really happened, and somehow manages to diminish the political nature of sexual harassment, even while seeming to highlight it. At least 90 percent of the problem had to do with Michael Seitzman's script. In the interview with Seitzman on the DVD, he makes clear that he didn't think the sexual harassment story was the real story. The real story, he said, was the traumatic experience Josie had in high school, and her relationship with her son. Therefore he should have written a script for Lifetime focusing on what he felt was the "real story". He should not have used one of the most important cases for sexual harassment in legal history as the vehicle for telling this other story. The producers should have demanded a script that more closely resembled Susannah Grant's Erin Brockovich. The sequence of victimization after victimization depicted in North Country didn't let us get to know Josie's character in any depth. We saw her slammed against the wall again and again, from beginning to end. We see that she stands up against the oppression, but we aren't taken into her sensibility, her choices, her process, her blind spots, character change, etc, etc, like in EB. Likewise, the lack of complexity in the male "macho" characters also flattens the story, and takes away from the real difficulties in challenging sexism and sexual harassment. In real life, character complexity of those who oppress or who defend oppressors is part of what makes the problem of sexual harassment difficult to fight. I read an interview with Niki Caro, and though I think she's a very talented director, I got the sense that she didn't really get the politics or history behind sexual harassment. It seems things aren't as bad in New Zealand as they are here in the U.S. This is a foreign culture to her, and Northern Minnesota is certainly a foreign culture. I wish she would have spent more time fully understanding the issues and cultural dynamics (including the accent and mannerisms of the area, etc, which were sprinkled into the movie, but not rigorously replicated) before undertaking the project. If she had gone the extra mile to immerse herself in the issue and the region, perhaps she would have demanded a total rewrite of the script.
I hate you Hollywood!
Through four-fifths of North Country, the audience receives a rare treat. It's a film that deals with a serious issue, sexual harassment, in a serious way. It is a compelling drama that is well shot, directed and acted. It is nothing short of tragic then, that the last fifth of the film is some of the worst put to screen this year. Screenwriter Michael Seitzman is no stranger to vastly overblown, yet flat, melodrama. One can see his Here on Earth for a sample of how ridiculous his conception of human interaction is. Yet how is it that most of the film is not only watchable, but truly exceptional, when the ending was so terrible? The answer probably has more than a little to do with director Niki Caro. In 2002's Whale Rider Caro guided another spectacular story about a woman who challenges the gender roles of her community. It was a beautiful and engaging tale and North Country starts out the same way. Presenting a fictional account of the nonfiction book Class Action: The Story of Lois Jensen and the Landmark Case that Changed Sexual Harassment Law, North Country begins on the stand with Josey Aimes (Charlize Theron) being grilled about her sex life. The film then goes back to Aimes' hiring at the mine and the problems she and the other female workers faced there. The harassment was pervasive. It wasn't just catcalls and sexist utterances, though it was those. It was in many cases more or less sexual assault. When Josey felt able to complain about it, she could do so in the Human Resources office, with a pinup calendar staring back at her. It was the type of openly hostile workplace that really makes you wonder, as Josey's dad (Richard Jenkins) does, how is it that so many men can behave so badly? They wouldn't act towards women the same way at a company picnic so why do they do it at work? Josey's struggle is not made easier by most of her female coworkers. They need the high- paying mine jobs as much as she does and the repercussions for speaking out have been well-illustrated. Unemployment and hungry families are not welcome ideas when there is no reason to believe your complaints will be acted upon. Or at least, acted upon positively. Josey is subjected to degrading and brutal reprisals as are some of the other women despite having not complained themselves. Particularly disgusting, though it's hard to pick out the worst from so many choices, is an instance where Sherry (Michelle Monaghan) finds semen in her locker. Josey finally gets to court only to have her sex life put on trial. That this is done is no surprise. In the actual case Jensen vs. Eveleth Taconite the women were subjected to detailed examinations of their personal lives after a judge granted the company's lawyers access to their medical records. Where the film begins to falter is when it tries to defend Josey's sex life. Josey's sex life is not the point and never was. By focusing on that it focuses less on how she and her coworkers were routinely terrorized at work. Though her lawyer Bill White (Woody Harrelson) does an adequate job in rebutting arguments, the arguments are ones that need not be addressed. All the court scenes deal with only this. The struggles of Aimes are based largely on the events of Lois Jensen's Job-like struggle. Where the film fails though, is by trying to rearrange them neatly and add "Oscar moments". Many of the actions, even the ones that seem over the top, actually did happen. But they didn't happen like they do in North Country. Particularly regrettable are a courtroom confrontation between White and Bobby Sharpe (Jeremy Renner) and a surrogate father-son talk between Kyle (Sean Bean) and Sammy (Thomas Curtis). The awful Hollywood legalisms and almost absurdist melodramatic conclusion is a tremendous letdown after a great start and middle. It's worth noting that the missteps happen where the film strays farthest from the true story, the Michael Seitzman coming through maybe. That's not to say that it isn't worth seeing or that is doesn't have brilliant moments, such as Sissy Spacek's one woman wife-strike, it's just that a halfway decent ending would have made this one of the year's best films. Instead it abandons an important and well done story for the sake of, what? Oh well, at least it was better than Disclosure.