..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

North Country

Directed by Niki Caro
Warner Bros

Niki Caro’s deeply felt workplace drama, North Country, which focuses on sexual harassment in the taconite mines of northern Minnesota, will remind anyone who’s watched a movie in the last 40 years of such kindred titles as Norma Rae, Erin Brockovich, The China Syndrome and Silkwood … minus all the laughs. Earnest to fault, the chilly tome describes the heroic real-life struggle, waged by a handful of women miners in the mid-‘80s, for respect from their male counterparts and the right to work without being groped and insulted. Charlize Theron, who disappeared into the role of a serial murderer and prostitute in Monster, is only a tad less convincing here as a gorgeous (there’s no getting around it) single mother whose only crime is trying to afford a better life for her kids.

Theron’s good, but her character is rarely required to be anything more than justifiably pissed off by the boorish behavior of the locals. As is typical of the genre, the enemies of progress are drawn with a very thick brush stroke, and their shades of gray are almost impossible to discern. Only two of the dozens of males portrayed in the mine, courtroom and union-hall scenes are shown to have even an ounce of human decency. Mostly, they’re lumped together as working-class rabble and sexist gargoyles, with no empathy whatsoever for their co-workers. In fact, many of the women involved in the litigation were the wives, daughters or mothers of male miners, who, we’re led to believe, were unanimous in their hatred. This runs contrary to evidence presented in a background featurette, in which several of the actual complainants offered praise for the many men who supported their case.

All that said, Caro’s depiction of life in this economically fatigued corner of America – which is dreary only in winter – is nothing short of superb. She even managed to secure rights to the music of one of Hibbing’s favorite sons, Bob Dylan. The bonus material is essential to a full appreciation of North Country.

- Gary Dretzka