North Country
By: Moviefaire | Category: Film Reviews | 11/12/05 | 11:03 AM
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Grade: B | Genre: Drama
Summary: Okay, I get it already, men are bad, women are good. A well made, gritty drama that is hard to watch, goes for the jugular, and almost misses the heart.
In North Country, director Niki Caro of Whale Rider fame, has recreated another unfamiliar culture brilliantly and in the process managed to scoop up an Oscar winning cast to perform this strong drama, but North Country delivers a harsh message at the expense of the book it was "inspired" from and without the subtle grace needed to carry it off. I am not saying this is a bad film, in fact in today's marketplace, it is a powerhouse of a drama, with Oscar-baiting scene after scene in it, but it is almost too much to bare with the relentlessness of continual harassment that the character Josey Aimes endures from nearly every male in her life. Screenwriter Michael Seitzman has taken this rather dated material from a novel based on the first sexual harassment class action suit in this country, which changed the fabric of the American workplace forever. The problem for me is that the original story was far more moving and powerful than the cliches I find in this script, and that is a shame for it was a hell of a story. |
The bleakness, oppressiveness and poverty of the Iron Range of Minnesota are caught to perfection on the screen and for the first slow, grey thirty minutes of the film you are ready to drive to another state, but the story picks up as Josey Aimes tries to start life over working in the male world of the miners. Charlize Thereon as Joey, goes for a gold statue again and delivers a heart wrenching performance as a woman who suffers at the hands of male chauvinists on her job as she tries to earn a decent wage for her family. Everyone from her father, brilliantly portrayed by Richard Jenkins, to nearly ever breathing male in her life has abused her on some level. Theron will get nominated for this performance as her acting range went from sad and depressed, to dirty and oppressed, and finally to humiliated and angry, and well, you get the picture. Her best scene in fact is a more quiet one, where she watches her children play on a trampoline she has bought for them, and the sheer joy of being able to provide for her children washes over her face in a glorious way.
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| North Country |
| Starring: Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand, Sissy Spacek, Woody Harrelson & Sean Bean |
| Director: Chris Menges & Niki Caro |
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| View the Trailer (Quicktime) |
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The smaller performances of Frances McDormand as her best friend, Glory, and Sean Bean as Glory's husband, Kyle, were a relief to watch and far more interesting in many ways. McDormand commanded the screen with an utterly honest performance as the only woman who can really make it in the miner's world. Sean Bean, an astonishing British actor sorrowfully misused in American films, delivered a graceful, understated performance as Glory's dutiful, loving husband and played one of the only two decent male life forms in the film. Woody Harrelson managed a laid back, sly performance as a local hockey star turned attorney who comes in handy as Josey, of course, will need a lawyer. When things go from bad to chaotically worse for her and she gets no recourse for her grievances, Josey sues.
Okay, so the performances were excellent, the cinematography perfection, the story powerful and somewhat based on the truth, so what is my problem you may ask? Somewhere between the direction and the script I suppose, for this movie was too much in my face and lacked subtlety and on some level believability. Yes, this is loosely based on a real event, and that event was horrific and deserves a voice, but perhaps not as much voice as it screamed in this film. Less is more at times. I understand the need to tell a good yarn, but the length that the script goes to for the sake of dramatic effect was over the top. To have the main character raped, beaten by her husband, misunderstood by her father who accuses her of being a whore, and abused on the job, was more than I could bare to watch in one movie. The welfare mother that this movie is based on went through enough in the years of unending trials that nearly robbed her of her health and her mind when she was settling the real class action suit. I think the truth held enough drama to it. The film states it is based loosely on a true story but yet at the movie's end it lists the outcome of the lawsuit as if the film were reality. Were the actual facts of the real case and the people involved not dramatic and exciting enough? I think they are.
This film might go to the Oscars for the subject matter and the wattage of rage and anger it inspires for some. But for this reviewer, despite the scenes of enormous power, the emotional connection I needed was missing, and this film really wants you to feel. Wait, on second thought, I did feel, I felt relief when the movie was over.
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