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When North Country's Josey Aimes decides to put down the shampoo bottle and pick up a hard hat, recognizing that a shift at the mine earns her six times what she takes home after a day at the salon, the reaction is not so good ...
Her father: "You wanna be a lesbian, now.''
A female co-worker: "Shut your mouth and take it like a man.''
A male superior: "You'll be hauling, driving and lifting all sorts of things a woman shouldn't be doing.''
Male miners: Well, we can't print any of what they say to Aimes, but truck drivers could take profanity lessons from these guys.
That sounds glib, and it doesn't properly portray the egregious, disgraceful and criminal harassment and abuse that Aimes (Charlize Theron, who earned her second Oscar nomination as best actress for her performance) and her co-workers endured, as portrayed in the earnest drama North Country, available on DVD this week.
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Based on a true story - if ever so loosely, one suspects - about the experiences of women at an iron mine in Minnesota in the '80s, North Country is nothing if not determined to enrage us and then give us something to stand up and cheer about. And cheer we will, but it left me feeling a bit manipulated. (OK, a lot manipulated.)
The problem is that director Niki Caro doesn't fully appreciate the quality of the story.
The truth, no matter how torqued it is by Caro to suit her own instincts to push North Country into the realm of melodrama, is that these brave women did stand up and fight, and eventually launched a class-action sexual harassment lawsuit. And they won.
Good story - inspiring, too.
But from the outset, Caro goes over the top.
As soon as Aimes arrives for orientation, the abuse begins - foul language, idiotic and even dangerous pranks, horrific sexual assault.
Aimes - and all of us watching - endure more than we can take. She is on the receiving end of abuse from her co-workers, family, strangers at the local rink, in the bar ... at every turn. Perhaps these are accurate depictions of what happened, but dramatically it is too much. We wonder how anyone could endure half an hour at this mine, never mind months.
By the time Aimes quits and begins her legal battle, we are exhausted.
North Country opens in the courtroom and the story is told in flashback. The early scenes in court are told with some restraint, but the denouement is pure movie-of-the-week schmaltz that feels dishonest. It almost cheapens the courage and the victory of these women.
Excess is Caro's stock in trade but the actors often succeed in getting under their character's earthy, gritty, dirt-caked skins. The trick with Theron is to tone down her breathtaking beauty - "You're kind of girlie to be a miner,'' one friend tells her. But as we saw in Monster, Theron can act and disappear into a character and she is believable as a struggling single mom who would sacrifice a good-paying job to stand up to her employers.
The excellent supporting cast helps ground the story. Restraint is the key to performances by Sissy Spacek and Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under) as Aimes's parents, and Sean Bean and Frances McDormand as loyal friends. McDormand, named as one of the nominees in the best supporting actor category, shows her usual sound judgment in underplaying her character.
North Country is one of those movies that wants to be "important.'' It does relate a story of social significance, and young people should be aware that it was not so long ago that conditions like these existed for women brave enough to toil in a workplace always reserved for men only. (And may still exist.) They were pioneers who showed great courage and did indeed make a difference.
It is effective and, to be fair, often an absorbing and even rousing drama. Perhaps just too many mine games.
NORTH COUNTRY - original rating: 3 SUNS (out of 5); DVD rating: 2.5 SUNS