North Country
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: October 14, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
31
Mixed:
8
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger 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
90
Dallas ObserverBill 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
88
New York PostLou Lumenick
A classic social drama in the proud tradition of "Norma Rae," "Silkwood" and "Erin Brockovich." Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie 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
88
Boston GlobeWesley 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
80
VarietyDavid Rooney
An emotionally potent story told with great dignity. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.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
80
The A.V. ClubTasha 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
80
Washington PostAnn 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
80
SlateDavid Edelstein
Powerful and then some. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie 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
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Stirring and emotionally forceful. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen 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
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Overcooked and simplistic in spots. Read full review
75
USA TodayMike 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
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
North Country may be a simplistic account of a hard-won battle, but it will have audiences cheering. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe 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
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Despite its serious subject matter, North Country is a crowd-pleaser at heart. Read full review
75
PremiereStephen 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
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk 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
70
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
The problem with Seitzman's script is how predictable almost all of it feels. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyElla 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
70
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
You cannot help being stirred by the reach and depth, the constant rebuffs to sloppiness, of a strong ensemble. Read full review
70
NewsweekDavid 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
70
The New RepublicStanley 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
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter 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
67
Portland OregonianMarc 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
67
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
At best, North Country just inspires you to read the book. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneJessica Reaves
A potentially great movie--with talent and plot points to spare--that settles for being just okay. Read full review
63
Charlotte ObserverLawrence 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
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen Cole
For all North Country's blockbuster elements, the film remains a curiously uninvolving affair. Read full review
60
Village VoiceJessica 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
60
The New York TimesManohla 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
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth 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
60
Film ThreatPete 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
50
Rolling StonePeter 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
50
TV Guide MagazineKen 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
40
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
A long, slow slog through what could have been, and should have been, a more absorbing story.
40
EmpireAngie Errigo
It starts off well enough but slowly sinks under the leaden weight of its worthiness. Read full review
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