North Country is a 2005 American drama film directed by Niki Caro, starring Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand, Sean Bean, Richard Jenkins, Michelle Monaghan, Jeremy Renner, Woody Harrelson, and Sissy Spacek.

The screenplay by Michael Seitzman was inspired by the 2002 book Class Action: The Story of Lois Jenson and the Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law by Clara Bingham and Laura Leedy Gansler, which chronicled the case of Jenson v. Eveleth Taconite Company and USW Local 2705 which supported the employers efforts through the horrific events and ensuing legal battles.

Josey takes her concerns to the mine's owner, Don Pearson, but despite his previous assurances that he is there to help, she arrives to find that he has invited Pavich to the meeting, along with several other executives, and offers to accept her resignation immediately.

Later, after being sexually assaulted by Bobby at work, she resigns and asks Bill White, a lawyer friend of Kyle and Glory, to help her file a lawsuit against the company.

Josey then reveals that after school one day, where she and Bobby had been serving detention together after being caught kissing, she was raped by Lattavansky, which led to her becoming pregnant with Sammy.

Glory, who has come to the court in her wheelchair and is unable to speak, has Kyle read a letter saying she stands with Josey, though still not enough to qualify for a class action suit.

Jenson refused an offer to consult on the film and would not sell the rights to her story; thus, the filmmakers created a fictionalized account with original characters.

[5] The character Glory Dodge, played by Frances McDormand, was based on Pat Kosmach, one of the original plaintiffs in the class action suit.

[4] The film was shot in the northern Minnesota towns of Eveleth, Virginia, Chisholm, and Hibbing; Minneapolis;[7] as well as Silver City and Santa Fe in New Mexico.

[8] Songs from the film not on the soundtrack album include "Wasn't That a Party" by The Irish Rovers, "Shake the House Down" by Molly Hatchet and karaoke versions of George Thorogood's "I Drink Alone" and Pat Benatar's "Hit Me with Your Best Shot.

The site's consensus states: "Though sometimes melodramatic and formulaic, North Country is nonetheless a rousing, powerful story of courage and humanity.

[13] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times called it "a star vehicle with heart – an old-fashioned liberal weepie about truth and justice" and added, "[It] is one of those Hollywood entertainments that strive to tell a hard, bitter story with as much uplift as possible.

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.

"[14] In his review in the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert observed, "North Country is one of those movies that stir you up and make you mad, because it dramatizes practices you've heard about but never really visualized.

We remember that Frances McDormand played a woman police officer in this same area in Fargo, and we value that memory because it provides a foundation for Josey Aimes.

"[16] In Rolling Stone, Peter Travers awarded the film two out of a possible four stars and commented, "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.

The actors, director Niki Caro (Whale Rider) and the great cinematographer Chris Menges all labor to make things look authentic.

The strength of both the performance and character anchor the film firmly in the tradition of other dramas about working-class women leading the fight over industrial workplace issues, such as Norma Rae or Silkwood.