'North Country' a powerful reminder of America's promise of equality

Happy Fourth of July! Next to flags, fireworks and food, nothing says "America" on this most patriotic of days quite like a good old-fashioned lawsuit -- especially when it's as intense, groundbreaking and downright juicy as the one in "North Country" (2005), a gripping, fact-based tale about one woman's fight for equality on the job.

Our story takes place in 1989, along the Mesabi Iron Range in northern Minnesota. The mines were men-only until 1975, when a Supreme Court ruling forced mining companies to start hiring women as well. None of the guys were happy about it.

More than a decade later, men still outnumber women at the Pearson Taconite -- Steel Mine by 30 to 1. As if the work weren't hard enough, the guys go out of their way to make it worse for their female co-workers, with a steady litany of lewd comments, filthy graffiti, and highly inappropriate touching. It's all in the name of fun, of course. These girls just need to learn how to take a joke!

Gross as they are, the mines are the only way out for Josey Aimes (Charlize Theron). Pregnant at 16 and long considered the town slut, Josey has always been a disappointment to her strait-laced parents Alice (Sissy Spacek) and Hank (Richard Jenkins).

Now in her 30s and with two kids, Josey has done little to make them proud. Fleeing from an abusive husband, Josey winds up back on her parents' doorstep, begging them to let her stay until she can sort her life out. Reluctantly, they agree. Josey soon finds a job at a local beauty salon, but it doesn't begin to pay what she'd be making at the mines.

Encouraged by her old friend Glory (Frances McDormand), who's worked at the mines for years, Josey applies at Pearson and is hired.

Like all her co-workers, Josey just wants to do her job and pick up her paycheck at the end of the week. She doesn't want to worry about finding disgusting things in her lunchbox, excrement smeared across her locker, being grabbed and assaulted by her co-workers, and having to endure endless, humiliating "jokes."?

It isn't long, though, before Josey is worrying about all those things and much more. As a stunning woman, she's even more of a target. Complaints to her boss are brushed off; when she approaches the company's owner, he advises her to shut up or quit. When the abuse at work starts to spill over into her private life, Josey does indeed quit -- but not before filing a lawsuit against Pearson Taconite -- Steel, Inc. that will end this kind of sexual harassment once and for all.

Theron gives a powerful, Oscar-nominated performance as Josey, bringing me to tears several times. McDormand also received a well-deserved nomination, and Richard Jenkins (of "Six Feet Under") should have gotten one as well; his speech at the union meeting was awesome. He was Hank Aimes! Sean Bean enjoys a rare nice-guy role as Kyle; Jeremy Renner and Chris Mulkey are great as bad-boys Bobby and Earl, and Woody Harrelson is wonderfully low-key as lawyer Bill White.

Although "North Country" was inspired by a true story, the characters in the movie are all fictional. You can find "North Country" (rated R for language and some very uncomfortable, creepy situations -- like the scene with the high school teacher!) at most video stores. Check it out!