Charlize Theron plays an iron miner in "North Country:"

I review the fictionalized biopic (opening Friday, October 21st) about the lady miner who sued for sexual harassment in the American Conservative now available to electronic subscribers (subscribe here). An excerpt:

You might assume that the sexual harassment issue died of hypocrisy in 1998 when feminists stood by the wounded Bill Clinton, but the left's long march through the institutions is immune to shame. The media is perhaps the key institution, because, as Orwell noted in 1984, "'Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'"

So, now we have "North Country," a thoroughly fictionalized retelling of the landmark Jenson v. Eveleth sexual harassment case. Charlize Theron, the 2003 Best Actress winner for "Monster," stars as a gorgeous miner who learns that the men who labor in the open pits of the Mesabi Iron Range are crude. Ultimately, she wins a "hostile environment" lawsuit against the mine.

Unlike in "Monster," where Charlize famously had her lovely complexion artificially weathered, here she looks like what she is, a former model posing amidst vast heaps of rubble. (Charlize recently attributed her beauty to thinking nice thoughts, burbling to Oprah, "I really believe that we look physically the way we do because of the emotional impact that we've made on our bodies during our life." Well, sure …)

Still, Charlize's face is bland, distinguishable from all the gaunt blondes in Hollywood only by a layer of adorable baby fat.

Her "North Country" heroine is equally dull. Feminist victimism has rendered actresses' roles more two-dimensional -- notice how few femme fatale characters there are anymore? -- denying them any less-than-saintly motivations while insisting, stupidly, that they compete with men on physical strength.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer