Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a review of the Charlize Theron Oscar bait flick NORTH COUNTRY. The movie is going after that NORMA RAE/SILKWOOD angle, but from the sound of this review it might have done a good job at it. I missed a screening of this tonight (thanks to playing catch-up and my obsession with LOST), but I'm sure I'll catch it at some point. Enjoy the review.
Harry,
I've written a few times in the past and got a few reviews posted. I saw a screening of North Country last night and felt I had to send you my review. If you use it, please refer to me as Da Cap'n. Thanks.
North Country is a film that will surely polarize its audience. Many younger film-goers, particularly males, will run from this movie like the bubonic plague. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that this film opens the same day as Doom, an action/horror film based on a video game. For those of us fortunate enough to see this film, however, we will see a truly moving picture.
Charlize Theron portrays Josey Aimes, a single mother of two who goes to work in the steel mines of Minnesota in 1989. Though women had been working in the mines for over a decade, their abuse from the male workers never ceased nor slowed down. Josey goes through all kinds of trouble in her position, from verbal abuse to nasty rumors to near rape. When she is near the end of her rope, she decides to sue the mining company in charge.
The story is a fictionalized account of a real-life lawsuit brought upon a mining company in the mid '80s. Bringing this story to life is director Niki Caro, and her vision is near flawless. Caro's previous work was Whale Rider, an inspiring story of a young girl growing up in a Maori tribe. Here, Caro tackles the same idea in female strength though this time she does it in a more in-your-face semblance.
Moving from the beautiful scenery to the gritty under workings of the mines, Caro moves us through Josey's surroundings with an evident smoothness. She also captures the sweet silence of a snowy countryside like none since Altman?s McCabe and Mrs. Miller.
The film does suffer at times. With a 125-minute running time, we get several instances of the abuse the women went through in the mines. Not for nothing, but we get the idea. When Josey is attacked and threatened with rape by a fellow worker, the extremes of the situation are brought about. Unfortunately, we are still subject to two or three more examples of the difficulty these women endured. Each one is more cringe-worthy than the last, until we are literally squirming in our seats. Toning back a bit on the graphic nature of some of the abuse wouldn't have made Caro's message any less poignant, and it might just have made the film experience a little tighter.
Caro does make up for this lost time by splicing scenes of the ensuing trial throughout Josey's story in the mine. This jumping back and forth in time saves a lot of time, and really constricts the narrative. We don't have one story in the beginning and a separate story in the end. This helps bring both area of the film's story into one, determined sequence of events.
Though Caro's direction is almost superb, the film's true gems are its actors. No less than three of the film's performers deserve award nominations if not the awards themselves. Theron drives Josey's character through the film with a strength not seen in female leads lately. This is the kind of performance that cries out Oscar, and Theron will surely be recognized again.
The other two excellent performances are from Frances McDormand and Richard Jenkins. McDormand plays Josey's best friend and the female member of the union board. Her character is as strong as Josey until about halfway through the film when a revelation comes out that I won't divulge here. Needless to say, her remaining screen time is heartfelt and emotion at its finest.
Jenkins plays Josey's father, a fellow miner who thinks women do not belong in that particular career. His sturdiness in the beginning is equaled only by his emotional breakdown near the film's end. The speech he gives at the union meeting just before the film's climax is sure to be his Oscar nomination clip, and he surely deserves it.
One performance that should have been better is that of Sean Bean's. He is an astounding actor. The character he is given is probably the most likeable character in the whole story. The accolades should be pouring in for him. Unfortunately for Bean, his thick, British accent bleeds through at times. Other times, he appears to be thinking about stifling it so much that his actions falter because of it.
North Country is a powerful film that, regrettably, won't play to many members of the movie going public. Those who do see it won't regret the time given, but those who won't see it won't enjoy it anyway. It is anything but a 'film for all ages', but, then again, some of the best films in history aren't either.
Grade: B+ (Rated R for sequences involving sexual harassment including violence and dialogue, and for language)
