The Collegian

Issue date: 10/28/05 Section: No Limits

Frances McDormand and Charlize Theron sit during a meeting.

"North Country" tells the story of Josie Aimes, played by Charlize Theron, who talkes her two children from different fathers and walks out on her boyfriend who beats her.

Josey heads home outside Minnesota to her mother and father's home where she finds little sympathy from her father, who works in the strip mines of the Mesabi Iron Range, actually blames her for the beatings.

Also Josey wants in life is to be able to provide for her two children, and every once in a while have a little extra money to take her kids out to a nice meal or buy her son new hockey skates.

She gets a job with little pay as a hairdresser. After running into an old friend, Glory, played by Frances McDormand, Josie realizes she could be making six times more money as a miner. Out of every 30 miners, 29 of them are men.

Josey begins working as a miner where she and fellow women miners become the target of severe sexual harassment and hate from the male miners. In her new world, she becomes the target of disgusting men who view women operating heavy machinery as an opportunity to take advantage of as if the woman was offering sex.

After severe and brutal torment, Josie decides that she can no long take the emotional and sometimes physical beating that she receives at work. After reporting to her boss and even the president of the company, she soon realizes that no man is going to take her claims seriously.

She inquires the help of a local lawyer, played by Woody Harrelson, who helps her take this case to court in hopes of establishing new law.

This heart-wrenching story goes through the life of a single parent who will do whatever it takes to provide for her children, even if it means standing alone for what she knows is right.

"North Country" is inspired by a true story of the life of Lois Jenson, who filed the first class action lawsuit for sexual harassment in American history in 1991, which is much later than I would have imagined.

This amazing story, inspired by reality, was written by Michael Seitzman and wonderfully directed by Niki Caro who shows the life in two worlds at the mine, the women's world and the men's.

Charlize Theron delivers an amazing performance which makes the viewer forget the beautiful academy award winner is not actually Josey Aimes who is daily fighting for any sort of dignity as she and fellow women at the mine are daily degraded.

"North Country" is the story of a woman who did not take no for an answer. She stands up for what she knows is right even when the good people in her community are too afraid and intimidated to stand behind her.

This movie is phenomenal because of the tremendous acting, which constantly keeps the viewer tuned in. This movie has been rumored to possibly be an award winning film, and in my opinion will definitely be the buzz soon to come.

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