Frances McDormand received her fourth Oscar nomination for her performance as Glory Dodge in North Country.
North Country is a flawed film about a female miner who files a lawsuit against the company she works for because of the many cases of abuse and sexual harassment that the women at the mine have to endure. I wouldn't say that the movie is a failure as there is a certain effectiveness in it that mostly comes from the leading performance but it's not a very good picture. The screenplay is very heavy-handed and the courtroom scenes in particular sometimes verge on being a bit ridiculous due to how unrealistic they are. It features a truly great cast that unfortunately is not very well utilized as almost every role feels a bit underwritten.
Frances McDormand is an actress I always enjoy watching on screen: she was a wonderful screen-presence and she can pull off comedy and drama equally well. It's mostly thanks to those quality of hers that she manages to breath life into the character of Glory which is, overall, little more than a cliché: for most of the time, she's the older, wiser, wisecracking friend that has been played million of times. Glory is not a particularly original exposition of it, but thanks to her natural talent and her dedication to the role McDormand always manages to be quite enjoyable whenever she appears on screen. She sells her character's funny remarks without ever overdoing the sass and brings a nice bit of humor to the movie. The two actresses don't share that much screen-time together and their relationship is not particularly complex, but McDormand and Charlize Theron manage to convey the deep and meaningful friendship between Glory and Josey and their small interactions are tender and heartfelt. I also like very much McDormand's chemistry with Sean Bean who plays her husband and I really wish they had more screen-time together as they are incredibly sweet in their short moments together.
Glory works with Josey at the mine and McDormand does a fine job at portraying Glory's attitude towards the men at the mine. Unlike the other women in the mine, Glory actually stands up to them with her biting remarks to the point that they actually respect her a little bit but at the same time, unlike Josey, she accepts the harassments as part of the job and her pride keeps her from complaining. McDormand portrays Glory's view on the subject a striking counterpoint to both Josey and the other women: unfortunately, this is the only truly interesting aspect of the character as Glory is otherwise extremely underwritten. McDormand does not get the screen-time and the focus to deepen her relationships with either Theron or Bean, or even to do all that much in general. There is a scene in which Josey, during a huge outburst, angrily tells Glory that she can't tell her how to handle her son as she never had children of her own, and Glory is visibly hurt by this but unfortunately this aspect of the character is never explored.
In the second half of the movie, Josey discovers that Glory has Lou Gehrig's Disease: McDormand portrays the decay of Glory's health in a very realistic fashion and she's particularly moving in the moment in which the board members of the mine tell her she's not a part of them anymore - the moment in which she walks away with her crutches trying not to cry is probably the most effective moment of her performance. She is also quite good in a later scene at the hospital and the moment in which she tells the lawyer to "fuck off" through the machine that allows her to speak is both funny for what she says and touching for her physical condition as she says that. Her final scene in the courtroom in which she is paralyzed in a weelchair and unable to sepak and makes her husband read a letter in which she says she stands with Josey is a very touching moment in which McDormand does some strong physical acting, but it's also a very short one that ends soon.
In the end, Frances McDormand completely commits herself to a role it isn't worth her efforts. She delivers a fine performance that is enjoyable in parts and touching in others, but the role is too underwritten and clichéd to allow her to shine. She improves North Country whenever she is on screen and while she can't escape the shallowness of the script, she admirably tries to.
3/5
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