Dir. Niki Caro, US, 2005, 127 mins
Cast: Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson
For her Oscar winning performance as serial killer Aileen Wuornos Charlize Theron was happy to pile extra pounds onto her slender figure and mask her exquisitely beautiful face with unflattering prosthetics, all in the name of art. Her role in this film, for which she's also been nominated for the best actress Oscar, is not a real life character as Aileen was, but the story is inspired by that of several women working in the Minnesota iron mines, who successfully sued their employers for sexual harassment in a ground breaking case and won.
The year is 1989. After her marriage falls apart, single mother Josey Aimes (Theron) goes back her home town and her parents. The only decently paid employment there is working in the mines, a male dominated area with a handful of women employees. Encouraged by one of them, her friend Glory (McDormand), Josey gets a job there, much to the disapproval of her parents (Richard Jenkins and Sissy Spacek). Hard and dangerous though the work is, this is nothing compared to the harassment the women receive from a hard core of men, who disapprove of what they see as women who "have no place here" and who are taking men's jobs. They express their disapproval through sexist remarks and insults and often appalling practical "jokes". The women in the community provide no support either, suspicious as they are that these working women are after their husbands. When Josey's complaints to management are ignored and after one particularly grim incident, when the men overturn a portaloo with Josey trapped inside, she decides to take the company to court.
I can see why director Niki Caro, whose first film Whale Rider also had a feminist slant to it, was attracted to the material. It's a strong, working class heroine story, reminiscent in some ways of the Meryl Streep movie Silkwood and Caro's given it a good sense of reality in terms of the chilly, depressing landscape, the settings of the town and the appearance of its inhabitants. This is the culture that country music songs are about. There are also some good performances, particularly from McDormand as the sassy, shop steward Glory, Jenkins and Spacek as Josey's parents and Woody Harrelson as the former lawyer, whom she persuades to help her. My problem is with Theron herself. Her performance is fine, very good in places, but she looks far too slim and sleek for the role. Maybe there was no need to go to the lengths she did when playing Aileen, but a working class woman, who's experienced the hardships that Josey has, is going to have at least a few lines on her face and a few excess pounds on her body from her junk food diet. But even with a bit of dirt on her face, she still looks like as though she's just come out of the beauty parlour, whereas the other women, including McDormand and Spacek, do look as though they work for a living. Talking of which, while we do at least see Glory driving a truck, Josey never seems to do any work more strenuous than strolling round the mines in a helmet and overalls. There's also more than a whiff of Hollywood manipulation in the storytelling - the degenerative illness which Glory develops, for example, or the scene where Josey is trying to explain to a packed meeting of hostile mineworkers why she is taking the company to court and her father, suddenly realising that family is more important than principle, comes to her aid. It's good drama but it's also pure Hollywood.
Carol Allen
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Warner Home Video have announced the UK Region 2 DVD release of North Country for 5th June 2006 priced at £17.99. Charlize Theron stars in this drama which saw her nominated for an Academy Award.
Presented in 2.40:1 Anamorphic Widescreen with English DD5.1 Surround, extras include deleted scenes and a documentary.
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