North Country
March 2006 Reviewed by: Rad Bennett Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

This movie is the second major release directed by Niki Caro, a New Zealander not yet 30 years old. Her first movie was the critical and popular success, Whale Rider. Based on her age and the excellence of her first two movies, she should have a long and distinguished career as a filmmaker. North Country is a social conscience movie about women’s rights, sharing honors with Norma Rae, as best of the genre.

The story is fictionalized, but based on real events. Josey Aimes (Charlize Theron) is a battered housewife and mother who dumps her abusive husband and returns home to live with her parents (Sissy Spacek and Richard Jenkins). We can see at once that Josey is back in "man’s country" when her dad asks, "He caught you with another man? That’s why he laid hands on you?" as if it would have been okay to beat her had those allegations been true. We are also shown that Josey has backbone when she answers, "You can actually ask that question?"

Josey gets a job as a hairdresser, but the meager wages cannot sustain her and her two children. She takes a job at a strip mine of the Mesabi Iron Range. There she can make six times the money and provide a proper home and education for her kids. Her bosses are not happy, indicating that they hire women only because they have to comply with Supreme Court guidelines. In describing the job, they note that "it involves lifting, driving, and all sorts of other things a woman shouldn’t be doing." Josey makes a good friend in her co-worker Glory (Frances McDormand), a feisty woman who gets along with the men by disarming them.

But the women are harassed. The men write derogatory phrases in excrement on their locker-room walls and put ugly little surprises in their lunch pails and lockers. An old flame sexually attacks Josey as if he has the right. The whole thing builds to the historic lawsuit that the women eventually win. It was the first class-action lawsuit involving sexual harassment and set the stage for better things to come. It is interesting to note that it was settled as recently as 1991.

The cast is magnificent, yet restrained. One thing that makes this movie so believable is that it does not go overboard. When people stand in the courtroom to support Josey, not all of them do. Theron doesn’t chew any scenery, either. Through an honest, earnest, low-key and realistic portrayal, she makes us into believers. McDormand matches her all the way, and the rest of the cast subtly follows suit. The photography is gorgeous, giving us a grand, but austere, portrait of Minnesota.

The DVD is quite good. The video is smooth and detailed. If you have a good large-screen set, you’ll think you’re watching a movie, not a video. The sound is largely up front and very detailed within a spacious stage. The acoustic and country music of the soundtrack are exceptionally appealing. The extras are not much. There is a short featurette of comments from the real women who sued. There are deleted scenes, presented without comment, and a theatrical trailer. That’s it. But the movie is the thing here, and it deserves to be seen by everyone.

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