Last Updated on November 21, 2022
PLOT: New York Times journalists Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) and Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) try to break the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault story but are met with opposition from the vast network of silence and intimidation that protected the former Miramax head.
REVIEW: Long before #MeToo, there had been rumblings about what kind of predator Harvey Weinstein was, even far outside Hollywood circles. Yet, even though he was infamous in this regard, he was still celebrated and while people may look back now and say they didn’t know – that’s been proven not to be the case over and over. All this leaves She Said in a tricky position, as it’s a movie about breaking the Harvey Weinstein story produced by a major studio (Universal) inside this system that protected him. To that extent, She Said smartly focuses on the excellent investigative work done by Twohey and Kantor, who blew the story wide open in October 2017. There’s a real chance that had they not pursued the story, Weinstein’s reign might still be going on today. These women, and those who came forward with their stories, deserve to be celebrated, and to that extent, She Said is a success.
Where She Said faces an uphill battle is whether or not audiences will be as intrigued by this story as they were with the Catholic Church abuse story depicted in Spotlight, to which this shares a lot of similarities. Indeed, She Said is a movie that will play best to a very “inside” Hollywood crowd. However, director Maria Schrader and screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz also make an effort to show how the way Weinstein ran amuck isn’t unique to Hollywood. There are likely Harvey Weinsteins in every business, but what makes the Weinstein story so unsettling is how the Hollywood machine protected him, and that’s an aspect of the story She Said doesn’t dwell on. It might be a story for another film.
Even still, the movie is compelling, with Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan excellent as the hard-driving but humane and empathetic Twohey and Kantor. The film takes great pains to show that the two had a supportive network both at the New York Times and home, which avoids the cliches of movies like this. Mulligan’s Twohey is depicted as the more aggressive one, while Kantor is quieter but no less incisive.
As good as they are, the most powerful performances come from the women playing the victims. Samantha Morton is particularly effective as Zelda Perkins, a former worker who battled it out with the Miramax lawyers when a friend was sexually assaulted at the Venice Film Festival. Likewise, Jennifer Ehle is terrific as a woman who, as a young Irish girl, was swept up by Hollywood glamor only to wind up being assaulted by Weinstein. Now, facing a cancer diagnosis, she’s finally inclined to tell her story. These roles are small but powerful. Zach Grenier also has a small but juicy role as a disgusted former account for Weinstein, who shares his story with Kantor and notes how frequent and recent the Weinstein payouts were.
Notably, Harvey Weinstein himself is only depicted in passing. We hear some recorded conversations and see him in passing, but that’s it. He’s represented mainly by accounts of his fearsome reputation, with Andre Braugher’s Executive Editor Dean Baquet noting that he’s had run-ins with him before.
In the end, She Said is an absorbing and well-crafted movie about some fine journalists, although inevitably, it’s also likely far from the last time we’ll see the Weinstein story depicted as a film. This is for the best, though, as even if the Weinstein story may not be something an average audience is keen to dip into, it’s a story Hollywood itself should never forget. She Said tells us one story and makes us feel good about the fact that Weinstein was finally punished, but there’s another story out there that needs to be told too, which is why was it allowed to go on for so long.
Follow the JOBLO MOVIE NETWORK
Follow us on YOUTUBE
Follow ARROW IN THE HEAD
Follow AITH on YOUTUBE