Fantastic!

Admirable film.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

This film addresses the first case of success in which a group of female workers won the firm in court in a class action of harassment and sexual discrimination. Everything happens in the mines of Minnesota but, over a real case, director Niki Caro and screenwriter Michael Seitzman decided to create a deeply melodramatic story centered on the figure of a young woman, mother of two children from different parents and with a past marred by rape and a bad marriage. She becomes the main target of the jokes, obscene gestures and provocations of the miners, who feel that women are stealing jobs from men. The story is very emotional but works well anyway. An interesting point is that, even when things are tense, the two sides are not defined by their sex, that is, even in those moments there are women who are not in favor of complaining, just as there are men who don't approve of the rude and coarse attitudes of their fellows. This allows the public to understand that the issue is not men vs. women, goes far beyond mere sexism.Charlize Theron is a good actress but seems visually too young for the character sometimes. Anyway, she managed to shine. Richard Jenkins has been OK but acts in a predictable way. Frances McDormand did very well, especially in the final half of the movie, where she really shows talent. Jeremy Renner manages to be truly despicable as the villain. Technically regular, it's a good movie and it deserves to be watched.

The movie North country does not have a lot to do about mandatory minimums but it does connect because the ways Josey win the lawsuit against the Mine is with the help of the other women and community and that is how we can help fight Mandatory minimums with groups of people who have been given years in jail for minor crimes and what it has done to their family, that would get the message across. The movie could have had a scene or part were a man from the mine get up and explains why he has such harsh feeling towards women, it would not justify his actions but it would give us a better perspective about him and the rest of the men. Glory has come to the court in her wheelchair and from the back of the room, her husband reads a letter saying she stands with Josey. Other women then stand up to support Josey's complaint. They are followed by more women, family members, and miners, making the case a class action.

This is a well done movie on all counts. Great performances from a bunch of top notch actors down to the smallest of roles. It's based on the true story of a single mother who filed a sexual harassment suit against the owners of a Minnesota mine where she worked in the 80's.Everything has been well executed here from the costumes to the dialogue to how you can feel the cold of Minnesota and the dirty, intimidation of the mine and its boys club. As a woman this is a super frustrating movie to watch, just vile the harassment and conditions that were deemed expectable. There are some really outstanding performances here from Theron, Renner, Jenkins and Frances Mcdormand blew me away. There's also some surprising sub plots involved. Just a super well made movie. I can't imagine being afraid to go to work. 8/21/14

North Country is a fictionalized account of the landmark, first in The United States, class-action sexual harassment lawsuit, Lois E. Jenson vs. Eveleth Taconite Co., filed in 1988 on the behalf of Lois Jenson of her employment at EVTAC Mine in Eveleth, Minnesota, and it's not all respectable to the real true story. It misses the heart of the matter. The occurrences of sexual harassment in North Country are roughly diminished by having way more grunting and hollering from the male miners than it has appropriately depicted sentiment towards the severity of the female miners' horrendous accusations. All inaccuracies aside, North Country is far too politely shown, to say the least. It's insulting how badly North Country loafs around the real hard issues. North Country carries a very strong camera, but it focuses on the all the trite stuff. The movie spends too much time on the family without any real intrigue and not nearly enough time on what happens at the mine workplace. This movie should have been easily great with any bit dosage of honorable movie-making. The message of the story is lost. The great acting is wasted, as is the writing. The sexual assault scenes are held in such poor suspense, like, we know they're going to happen, can we not dwell so much on them? North Country is atrociously ostentatious. I'm obviously critiquing the movie harshly because of its real life implications, but standing up as a fateful fable, North Country is good, though it had such a unperturbed pathway to greatness.