In the iron mines of Northern Minnesota circa 1989, a single mother of two with a shady-lady past goes to work as a miner and encounters personally degrading harassment from the mostly male crew. A compassionate and sensitive rewriting of a true incident--one that took some 10 years to resolve in the courts--but possibly overcrowded with too much melodramatic content. Supporting characters (like Frances McDormand's dump truck driver and Sissy Spacek's salt-of-the-earth mama) do not get enough quality screen-time to completely validate the time which they do have. The overripe finale is also questionable (were these filmmakers ever in a courtroom before?), though it does provide the audience with the emotional release it needs. In the lead, Charlize Theron gives a finely-wrought, gripping performance; she shows her guts, fear and bravery, but I'm not sure how convincing she is as mother to an older teenage boy (it seems a little soon for Theron). Does the film show all sides and give both the men and the women a fair shake? Probably not, but it's surprisingly not a man-haters movie, either. Told from the female protagonist's point of view, the emphasis is on her endurance against a certain group of men, taking a stand and speaking up for herself. It's inspiring, if a little corny. **1/2 from ****
