Sissy Spacek

what role does sissy spacek play in north country? please explain the character.?

ive never seen it but what is her role in the movie? what major part does she play in the story?

Sissy Spacek (Alice Aimes) plays the mother of Charlize Theron (Josey Aimes).

Without telling too much, this is just the beginning of the movie:
Josie’s life leaves much to be desired when we see her waiting by the Christmas tree with her pre-adolescent son and younger daughter, alone in the house. Her husband drives up. And we next see her lying on the floor bloody after he has beaten her. At that point, she wastes no time packing up her stuff into her pick up truck and moving herself and the kids out of there never to return. They move to her parent’s home in northern Minnesota. This living arrangement is not much better. At the very least, she and the kids are safe from her husband. But the minute her father observes her face, he has to ask her if the husband caught her with another man. He clearly has no respect, whatsoever for his daughter. Her mother, more nurturing, encourages her daughter to reconcile with her husband and take him back, without regard for the fact that he is abusive. Neither parent, at this point in the movie, is truly supportive of their daughter.

Sissy Spacek winning Best Actress