I said before going to the Toronto Film Festival than I hoped Niki Caro’s North Country (Warner Bros., 10.14) wouldn’t just be another dramatization of a sexual-harassment issue, which seemed old-hat to me. And I’m afraid N.Y. Times writer Caryn James is also on the money when she says the following: “While it seems to be a film with a cause, [North Country] refights a battle that took place long ago. As one of the few women working in a mine, Charlize Theron faces insults and discrimination in a role that seems conceived with an Oscar campaign in mind. Women still suffer in jobs that have traditionally belonged to men, but the blatant discrimination her character faces — her boss flat-out says she has no right to take a job away from a man — has no vital connection to the present. A truly provocative film would deal with the backlash against sexual harassment laws, the contemporary sense that political correctness has gone too far. The sitcom ‘The Office’ (both the British and American versions), with its troglodyte boss and a human resources department that stages seminars on appropriate behavior, says more about harassment today.”