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North Country

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 39 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 45 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
Michael Seitzman
Clara Bingham and Laura Leedy (book Class Action: The Story of Lois Jensen and the Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law)
Directed by: Niki Caro
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 14, 2005
DVD: February 21, 2006
Running Time: 123 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for sequences involving sexual harassment including violence and dialogue, and for language
Starring Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand, Sean Bean, Woody Harrelson, Jeremy Renner, Richard Jenkins, Sissy Spacek, and Michelle Monaghan
Inspired by a true story, North Country follows a woman's journey on a road that will take her farther than she ever imagined, ultimately inspiring countless others, and leading to the nation's first-ever class action lawsuit for sexual harassment. (Warner Bros.)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Whale Rider
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
After "Monster," here is another extraordinary role from an actress [Theron] who has the beauty of a fashion model but has found resources within herself for these powerful roles about unglamorous women in the world of men.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Bill Gallo
Happily, North Country is not all social-realist grit or straight sermonizing. Not only is Theron achingly real, the fine supporting performances here lend even more dramatic reach and human scale.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
A classic social drama in the proud tradition of "Norma Rae," "Silkwood" and "Erin Brockovich."
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
What gives North Country urgency is that it's about how a man comes to understand that it's bad for him and for his community to deny his daughter privileges and prerogatives he'd grant his son.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
It infuriated me. It broke my heart. It convinced me that Caro, who's from New Zealand, is a strong, clear-voiced filmmaker
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
An engrossing, well-crafted story of a grave injustice avenged, hitting all the right notes of sympathy, outrage and, finally, relief.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Charlize Theron, in nonglam mode, dominates this powerful drama about sexual harassment at a Minnesota iron ore mine in the early 90s.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson
The story of America's first successful class-action sexual-harassment lawsuit may sound dull, but Caro ratchets up the intensity until every flung epithet and threat stings. The approach is sometimes shrill, but it's effective.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
A welcome and appropriate treat is the flurry of Bob Dylan tunes that can be heard playing in the background of this northern Minnesota story.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
The milieu here is unforgiving, which makes fighting for basic rights important. You get a sense of why Bob Dylan -- who performs on this soundtrack -- wanted to bolt this frigid part of the map.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Might have been richer, tougher, more honestly liberal if it had revealed a few more shades of gray among the men.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Despite its serious subject matter, North Country is a crowd-pleaser at heart.
Read Full Review >Premiere Stephen Saito
There is something almost reverential about the way director Niki Caro shoots the winding roads leading into Minnesota's North Country mining community, just before dismantling all of it piece by piece.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
North Country may be a simplistic account of a hard-won battle, but it will have audiences cheering.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
Richard Jenkins gives the standout supporting performance, worthy of Oscar consideration, as Josey's father, a miner unable to conceal his anger at his daughter for having a child out of wedlock and, now, creating dissension at his workplace.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
The problem with Seitzman's script is how predictable almost all of it feels.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ella Taylor
The movie’s old-school feminism is true to its subject, and Theron proves charismatic enough to stand alone as an emblematic working-class heroine doing what she has to do without benefit of feminist theory. I’m even willing to forgive this rousing drama its coy, flirty ending, if only because its heroine has the grace not to drive her pickup truck off a cliff.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
The issue of sexual politics so dominates the story that it's a relief when an emotional showdown involves family rather than workplace issues. Not so surprisingly, these are the movie's best scenes.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker Anthony Lane
You cannot help being stirred by the reach and depth, the constant rebuffs to sloppiness, of a strong ensemble.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
Frances McDormand, as the lone female union rep, and Richard Jenkins, as Josie’s angry miner dad, cut through the predictability.
Read Full Review >The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
But the contrast between setting and story isn't all that bars North Country from fulfillment. The major trouble is Theron. She plays Josey as well as is needed, but she is simply too beautiful.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Harrelson does his considerable best to redeem the hackneyed role of the dreamboat do-gooder. No matter how conventional his roles may be, he always gives them a feral quality, an eccentricity, that lifts them out of the ordinary.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
At best, North Country just inspires you to read the book.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan
Caro stumbles in a couple ways. By flashing forward throughout the film to scenes of the climactic courtroom showdown, she blunts the story's dramatic impact.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
North Country resorts to theatrics a judge would squelch after one outburst, as director Niki Caro and writer Michael Seitzman aim for a "Spartacus" feel.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole
For all North Country's blockbuster elements, the film remains a curiously uninvolving affair.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Jessica Reaves
A potentially great movie--with talent and plot points to spare--that settles for being just okay.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Jessica Winter
Having established Josey as the focus of the entire iron range's enmity, the filmmakers panic, and North Country spectacularly self-destructs in a climactic courtroom free-for-all.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
That the film works as well as it does, delivering a tough first hour only to disintegrate like a wet newspaper, testifies to the skill of the filmmakers as well as to the constraints brought on them by an industry that insists on slapping a pretty bow on even the foulest truth.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
To see this overly schematic movie, is to be made to feel -- inaccurately as it turns out -- that the whole thing is a hopelessly exaggerated fabrication. The taint of the melodramatic techniques used in key segments infects the entire movie and makes us question the truth of a significant historical reality.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
An above average film, and features fine performances (Theron and McDormand are probably stone locks for more Oscar nominations), but be wary of the advertising pointing out the film's similarities to movies like "Erin Brockovich."
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
What should have been an important addition to popular films about women's rights winds up being the most insulting courtroom drama since "Ally McBeal" was put out of its misery.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Any similarities between Josey and Lois Jenson, the real woman who made Eveleth Mines pay for their sins in a landmark 1988 class-action suit, are purely coincidental. Instead, we get a TV-movie fantasy of female empowerment glazed with soap-opera theatrics.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
A long, slow slog through what could have been, and should have been, a more absorbing story.
Empire Angie Errigo
It starts off well enough but slowly sinks under the leaden weight of its worthiness.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 45 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Tom M. gave it an8:
I resisted seeing this film assuming it would be no more than a long drawn out "message" film, no matter the relevance of its subject matter. I was dead wrong. When I finally did see it, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Although there will still be those same old (and young) reactionaries who will try to dismiss it as a "chick flick," there is no denying that it captures the ugliness of gender mistreatment and discrimination, as well as the frustration and helplessness of those who are victimized by it. The cast is extraordinary with every single actor coming through. Frances McDormand pulls off yet another masterpiece, Woody Harrelson surprises, and Sissy Spacek does it once again (her portrayal was so true to character I did not recognize her until well into the story). Which brings me to Charlize Theron. Her exceptional performance and stunning beauty caused me to wonder about other actresses who are able to to combine beauty and talent so effortlessly. I'm sure there are others, but a young Julie Christie immediately came to mind. And, lastly, if you like Bob Dylan you will savor the soundtrack, and, like me, will probably end up buying it.
Shekar S gave it a7:
Powerful performance by Theron and beautifully directed.
Pat C. gave it a5:
As is sometimes the case in these types of stories, the focus on the profane attitudes of the mine workers creates a permanent cloud of resignation even after their victims are vindicated. I thought the movie dragged on a bit, but I appreciated its refusal to go completely feminist.
Gerry P. gave it a9:
I worked most underground mine of Canada as a miner and mostly as a superviser. If this was taken from realty, the staff from this mine were very sick people and should have been prosecuted for their lack of supervision and self respect. As for the movie it was very good.
Jen M. gave it a9:
I found it extremely touching and emotional to watch. Loved all of the performances and the cinematography of that depressingly bleak landscape.
[Anonymous] gave it an8:
A competent feminist drama, with good performances and a searing depiction of sexual discrimination. I'm mainly an action fan, but i've never hated villains in those movie the way i hated the villains in this one, and that's saying a lot.
David G. gave it a4:
Lots of dead footage, even when it looks good. You could have cut 30 minutes out of this melodrama and not missed a thing.
