People are voting emotionally.

Overrated

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Charlize Theron has never been one to shy away from the painful, tortured realities of living a human life. She often goes out of her way to pick roles that cause her to express wounded characters, and then have salt rubbed in those wounds by the frank, unflinching nature of the film. North Country is a perfect example of this. She's a battered angel as Josey Aimes, a low income mother on the run from an abusive ex, back to her hometown. She finds herself needing a job, and when an old friend (Frances Mcdormand) recommends the local iron mines where she works, with the same pay and equal benefits that most of the men in town have, she takes the job. She soon realizes that women who go for that line of work are subjected to nasty bouts of sexual harassment and bullying behaviour on a daily basis by almost all of their coworkers. Jeremy Renner plays one of the offenders with appropriate sleaze, who also has ties to Josey's unfortunate past. It's tough for her and her female coworkers to be taken seriously, however, as most of the town either turns a deliberate blind eye or is so desensitized by this kind of thing which has become commonplace, that no one bats an eye. Xander Berkley is a great example, playing a casually sexist asshole of a supervisor. Josey and a vulnerable co worker (Michelle Monaghan, excellent) eventually reach the end of their ropes, and decide, against all advice, to file a lawsuit against the corporation. They are met with belligerence, indifference, cynicism and nastiness almost everywhere they turn. Mcdormand's character suffers the onset of ALS and can be of limited help to them. Sean Bean plays her introverted husband very well, stealing his scenes. Josey turns to an ex hotshot lawyer (Woody Harrelson), who reluctantly takes on the David and Goliath case she tries to present. She tragically bites off more than she can chew, however, when agonizing details from her past are brought into light as a result of the trial, providing riveting character beats for her and various other actors to live in. Sissy Spacek is warm and loving as her mother, Corey Stoll is great in an extended cameo, and there's good work from Chris Mulkey, Amber Heard, Brad William Henke, Rusty Schwimmer and more. Richard Jenkins, a criminally underrated actor, scores full points with his character arc as Josey's father, a hard bitten guy who's third act meltdown after learning the truth about his daughter's past will leave you choking back tears. It's Theron who anchors it though, her chilly, inaccessible face a twisted mask of the pain lurking behind, reflected in the eyes of everyone she interacts with. The film makes it searingly clear that trauma inflicted upon someone, no matter how many years ago, has the power to both hinder them in their future endeavours, as well make them stronger to help deal with whatever painful curveball life tosses them next. Theron conveys both these layered aspects and much more with her work, proving once again that she's an actress who can bring us to our knees time and time again with her skill.

This film really had it's moments, i know people say "powerful" a lot when it comes to describing movies but I really think it really fits in this case. Josie Aimes (Charlize Theron) and her female coworkers went through Hell just to get a little respect in the workplace and be judged solely by their quality of work and not by their sex. This story is partly fiction but it really shows what some women had to go through and what they had to do to get that respect...they had to FIGHT for every bit of it and deal with a lot of harassment, sexism and ignorance in the process. It's a human struggle and perseverance story to me really, all workers have had to fight (usually in court, unionizing or striking) for their safety, their pay and their well being in the workplace and women had to do this in a male dominated world where they were often not welcome. The character of Josie Aimes (Theron) not only had to rise above sexual discrimination she also had to deal with the double standard in which women are viewed when it comes to sex and sexual freedom. This film gave us a window into a world not forgotten by most who were there and shows the struggle we still deal with in some part today (sadly). The acting was great, with a very loud shout out for Richard Jenkins! His part while at the union meeting (standing next to his daughter) damn near made me cry, well done sir, well done! The directing was very good and although this movie may not be for everyone, in a way it's about everyone, it's about the struggle of humanity to better itself and those who have the courage to stand up for what's right.

My mother is the breadwinner of my household. Not long ago, this fact would've been unforeseeable but if it were to be the truth, the dominant male of said household would likely be viewed as feeble and a disgrace to his sex. In present times, that fact just is, with a recent study showing four in ten households with children under age eighteen make more money than their husbands across America.Try going back in time and telling that future fact to the arrogant, prideful male mineworkers in Niki Caro's North Country, who react with animal-like dominance upon meeting Josey Aimes (Charlize Theron). Josie is a single mother with two kids from two different men who must suffer through the hellish work environment and employee treatment when she gets a job working in the mining-field. This is during the time that employment law in America has been amended to now recognize women able to perform manual labor (or, in that time, a "man's job").The first half of the film documents Josey's courageous attempt to assimilate herself in with these male mineworkers, along with the few females that also took the courageous challenge as well. Josey is treated disrespectfully by most all the men, but none quite like the treatment she receives by Bobby Sharp (Jeremy Renner), an old high school sweetheart. After repeated slandering, vicious torment, and instances of sexual harassment, Josey finds Bill White (Woody Harrelson), a local attorney who can hopefully help in filing a class action lawsuit against the minefield and hopefully establish something resembling a women's rights division in the workplace.This kind of material lends itself to film. It's material we constantly hear about, and the kind that fills us with vigor and energy seeing it unfold. Thankfully, we have the likes of Theron, Renner, and Harrelson to constantly keep the film and its setups intriguing, while we have many scenes adequately showing the brutal conditions of the minefield, not just because of the work involved but because of its employees. However, North Country is heavily dramatized, meaning it has been made more interesting for the screen, so not only do we get to see Josey's legal battle unfold we also watch her relationship with her parents along with her son, who thinks nothing significant of her. This kind of drama overshadows what the film is really about - women's rights in the workplace. The film rightfully spends half of its time in the minefield, but the other half should've been loaned to the efforts of documenting a fierce, incorruptible legal battle the real Josey Aimes (named Laura Leedy Gansler) fought for fifteen long years.What we get instead of a devilishly interested legal battle is one that feels tacked on by writer Michael Seitzman as if it was a footnote. We get unrealistic behavior in the courtroom by Harrelson and Renner, whose statements seemed to be predicated off of the power buzzwords and theatrics can possess during the climax of a film. I was reminded of the nudging artificiality in the film A Few Good Men where, by the end, the actors are clearly putting on a show for us and the cameras, the lights, and the set designers have made the room so congested that there is hardly any room for behavior that doesn't seem to be for the cameras to take place.North Country's goal, above any other, seems to be providing us with entertainment, not exactly knowledge. Its dependence on melodrama is equal parts interesting as it is exhausting. It hits certain heights, one scene in particular involving Josey's teenage son, who is in the surly and ungrateful phase of shortchanging his mother's efforts and writing her off as the town slut. He is then given a valuable lesson by one of his mother's friends about how Josey never gave up on him, despite circumstances and complications where it would've been perfectly acceptable to do such a thing. This scene is extremely important because it reminds people, specifically kids, the value of their parents and the importance of appreciating them and not taking them for granted.However, it seems for every strong scene that resonates without being too didactic, there's one with questionable circumstances or one that emphasizes way too heavily on theatrics and emotion manipulation, effectively muddying a strong point of the project to follow. Courtroom dramas are difficult to do well, but North Country would've benefited from more scenes emphasizing Josey's struggle to rightfully reform a section of employment law rather than mend her family struggles, many of which seem nothing more than convenient instances of dissent carried beyond the lines of immaturity (specifically the way her father and son come to treat her).North Country is worth the price of admission for its great band of character actors, all of whom could be considered at the top of their game, and director Niki Caro's sensitive depiction of a tough topic. It can be only partially forgiven for the way it toys with its focus onto something of lesser importance in the long run.NOTE: This review was read before my Business Law class my senior year of high school in 2014.Starring: Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand, Sean Bean, Richard Jenkins, Michelle Monaghan, Jeremy Renner, Woody Harrelson, and Sissy Spacek. Directed by: Niki Caro.

Notes on the 2005 U.S. film 'North Country', about a "Class Action" in Minnesota that was essential to the social-legal struggle for female emancipation, much like what is represented by the 2010 British film 'Made in Dagenham', which historically precedes it as an earlier part of the same struggle, but which primarily centers around the economic aspect of it.Thoughts on Josey's character.Knowledge does not equal intelligence, but rather may serve as a catalyst of an already existing potential, a latent force, which is human intelligence. In this sense, one can more rightly say that experience equals knowledge. To maintain that Josey's character is of "average intelligence", as some seem to do, counts as a continuation of one's, as once it was also her, ignorance about the essence of the female-human psyche, one's core identity and true source of power, and therefore, it is patriarchal condescendence. And it is exactly this cultural condescendence that she overcame through staying, or rather, becoming true to her core identity, unleashing a wealth of social and practical intelligence, and through sheer courage and perseverance, thus becoming a true and authentic leader in the emancipation of women, but firstly, of herself, and there is nothing "average" about that.Thoughts on the film.As for the dramatic and cinematographic qualities of 'North Country': this film gives the viewer a strong sense of location and reality, and it is a top-notch realistic socio-political, historical drama of a rare kind, meaning that its occurrence happens few and far between, and of which I mentioned another example, 'Made in Dagenham', that can and will make one think about, and re-think one's experiences and views, correcting aspects of one's perception through the relative wisdom of hindsight, and also affirming and deepening what one has already learned, or perhaps always suspected about the world, about people, and above all, about oneself. This film is as much about women as it is about men, the struggle for, and no less against, gender equality being the story whereby its main characters are driven, the ideal, and the necessity of final gender equality being its passionate, convincing message, and therefore this film is for women and men equally.Concluding my review, I'd say that 'North Country' represents a raw, but eloquent and important chapter in the continuing history of the gains and losses, the pain and victory that characterize all such essential human struggles. For its all-encompassing portrayal of the struggle for female emancipation, through the compassionate, clear analysis of one chapter of it, this film deserves a full house, and in more than one sense.