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Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

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.

Based on the book "Class action: The story of Lois Jensen and the landmark case that changed sexual harassment Law" by Clara Bingham e Laura Leedy Gansler , North Country (2005) tell us the story of the character Josey Aimes greatly performed by Charlize Theron. Josey is a single mother of two children and she is tired of suffering with her partner. So she decides to return to her parent's house and to remake her life. Returning to Minnesota (USA) Josey can work in the mines, but something wrong happens there. Women are treated in a different way: they are insulted all the time by other workers. Moreover, they are sexually harassed.Josey notices that isn't treatment normal , although other women don't have encourage to talk about this situation, so she decides to change this situation resorting to justice. The lawyer asks her to convince other workers to join the fight, in other words, to start a class action against the Company. Unfortunately, they don't accept for fear and their situation only gets worse every day in Mina. This case comes to court and so the movie alternates moments in court and in Josey's life. It's an interesting movie because mainly based on real facts; in other words, we can't change the end of the movie. We must accept it even if it is negative. This is an important movie that helps us realize how jokes that seem harmless get out of control, such as those characterized by bullying. To talk about harassment is a difficult issue to be handled because unfortunately people are afraid to report. Josey knew that she could not fight for their rights alone. She needed everyone to come together for the same cause.

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.

When some friends rented this and I was forced to watch it, I was far from thrilled. I'm more of a thriller, action, comedy, horror, anything but drama kind of guy. Most of the movie is quite boring. However, right at the end I discovered a story that was powerful and moving for me. At the end of the movie it is revealed that the main character was sexually assaulted by her teacher while in high school and he is the father of her son. Everyone thought her son's father was this pseudo-boyfriend she had in high school. Because of this, her father has resented her and almost seems to hate her since that happened. I got the feeling he thought his own daughter was white trash and looked down on her ever since she got pregnant in high school. The pseudo-boyfriend never said anything because he thought she was willingly sleeping with her teacher, which made him hate and resent her as well. She had never told anyone about the assault either, I guess out of shame and undeserved guilt. So all these years she had been carrying the burden of this terrible thing that had been done to her all alone. She was even more than alone, her own father was bitter against her because of her teenage pregnancy. Then at the end of the movie the teacher's terrible crime is finally revealed. The look on the father's face, as he realizes that all these years he's been bitter and resentful to his own daughter because of a terrible crime that was committed against her, was extremely powerful and moving. The guilt he felt for being a distant and unloving father, the rage at the attacker, the renewed love for his daughter, you can see him going through all these powerful emotions as the realization hits him. This is a story of the reconciliation between a father and daughter. The rest is all background noise. Call me an old softie if you will, I found her forgiveness of her father for all those terrible years to be amazing. The bond that was broken was restored and the monster that caused it was brought to justice. It is a beautiful story in the end, even more so because of all the foulness she has to endure to get there.