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Abhorrent
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Disturbing
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Acceptable
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Wholesome
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Exemplary
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VA
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For viewers of all ages
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V13
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For viewers age 13 and below with parental guidance
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V14
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For viewers 14 and above
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V18
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For mature viewers 18 and above
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NP
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Not for public viewing
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Title:
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NORTH COUNTRY
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Running Time:
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123 min.
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Lead Cast:
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Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand, Sean Bean, Woody Harrelson, Jeremy Renner, Richard Jenkins, Sissy Spacek, Thomas Curtis, Elle
Peterson, Michelle Monaghan
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Director:
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Niki Caro
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Producers:
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Nana Greenwald, Jeff Skoll, Nick Wechsler
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Screenwriters:
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Michael Seitzma
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Music:
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Gustavo Santaolalla
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Editor:
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Genre:
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Drama
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Cinematography:
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Chris Menges
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Distributor:
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Warner Bros.
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Location:
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USA
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Technical Assessment:
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Moral Assessment:
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CINEMA Rating:
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For viewers age 14 and above
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North Country is the story of a woman's struggle in a world where women's feelings hardly count.
With two children in tow, Josey Aimes (Charlize Theron) flees an abusive relationship and seeks shelter in her parents' home in her childhood community in Minnesota. In order to support herself and her children she takes a job at a local hair salon where she meets old friend Glory (Frances McDormand) who persuades her to apply at the iron mine. The pay is six times higher than what she gets styling hair, but the iron mine also employs her conflicted father (Richard Jenkins) who—besides believing the pit is not a place for a woman—is convinced that Josey's past has brought shame to the family. In the mine, there is one woman out of every 39 miners, making Josey part of a puny handful who are treated with hostility and disrespect by their male colleagues.
North Country is a kind of movie that's designed to uplift and open the viewer's eyes to certain injustices and social ills we may have taken for granted too long.
With this aim in mind, the movie succeeds mainly with the solid and powerful performances delivered by Academy Award winner Theron and character actor Jenkins, with McDormand providing excellent support. Although "based on a true story" (Class Action: The Story of Lois Jensen and the Landmark Case that Changed Sexual Harassment Law by Clara
Bingham and Laura Leedy), North Country
is still mostly fiction although some of the facts and the general setting may be true-to-life. Cinematography sets the mood, with the bulk of the film shot in the mines, reflecting a merciless landscape that has no room for tenderness—indeed a place where only the most desperate or suicidal woman would want to be in.
North Country provides a rich ground for pondering the transformative power of one's working environment over one's person. The story is focused on the inhuman treatment women get in the hands of their male coworkers. Although it's worthwhile to pay attention to the issue of sexual harassment at work, viewing North Country should lead us to a larger question: What happens to men after prolonged immersion in a world with no women? Otherwise responsible fathers working hard to support their families, these men turn into brutes at the mines, harassing every woman in sight—very much like convicts who become beastly in prison and sexually abuse weaker inmates. That is the main value of
North Country: it is a movie but it is not entertainment; it may depress you even, or make you mad, but it will make you think.
(Date Reviewed: 23 March 2006)
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