Charlize Theron, in nonglam mode, dominates this powerful drama about sexual harassment at a Minnesota iron mine in the early 90s.

| Jun 28, 2022

Frances McDormand, as the lone female union rep, and Richard Jenkins, as Josie's angry miner dad, cut through the predictability.

| Mar 14, 2018

Yet Theron's steady performance allows you to see something in Josey that baulks at her victim status.

| Sep 26, 2017

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 1, 2006

Theron digs into the character, unafraid to make her blemishes every bit as apparent as her virtues. It's as good a performance as a person has given all year, ample proof the stunningly beautiful South African's Academy Award wasn't a fluke.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 29, 2005

You cannot help being stirred by the reach and depth, the constant rebuffs to sloppiness, of a strong ensemble.

Full Review | Oct 24, 2005

Though the dirt and grime in North Country are artfully applied, it's purely cosmetic and skin-deep.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 22, 2005

North Country does a good job in ratcheting up the tension and unfairness until the audience is brought to the breaking point.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 21, 2005

If there was ever any thought that perhaps Whale Rider was a fluke, North Country should erase all doubt.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 21, 2005

North Country delivers an emotional wallop and a couple of performances worthy of recognition come award time.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 21, 2005

She's [Caro] got a good story to tell (based, loosely, on a real-life case), and a marvelous cast to help her tell it.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 21, 2005

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 21, 2005

In the end, the no-nonsense direction by Caro (the New Zealander who directed Whale Rider), the terrific actors and the pitiless visuals by the great Menges more than carry the day.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 21, 2005

It's a memorable and touching portrayal of a certain kind of woman who is vital and determined instead of neurotic and victimized.

Full Review | Oct 21, 2005

North Country may be a simplistic account of a hard-won battle, but it will have audiences cheering.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 21, 2005

There's nothing cool or dispassionate anywhere in this film. It radiates waves of heat.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 21, 2005

For all North Country's blockbuster elements, the film remains a curiously uninvolving affair.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 21, 2005

In overdoing the theatrics and hammering the clichs North Country does artistic injustice to its own important argument.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Oct 21, 2005

North Country is in the tradition of workers-rights films like Norma Rae and Silkwood in that it sends its message through a convincing character whose temerity and courage are accompanied by less heroic baggage.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 21, 2005

North Country is a relentlessly discomforting movie. Nowhere does it let you settle into the lush cushions of a typical Hollywood entertainment

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 21, 2005