Review – ‘She Said’ Is As Unsettling As It Is Powerful
She Said sees Maria Schrader in the director’s chair with a script from Rebecca Lenkiewicz. It’s based on the article and book by Jodie Kantor, Megan Thowey and Rebecca Corbett. The movie stars Carey Mulligan, Zoe Kazan, Patricia Clarkson, Andre Braugher and Jennifer Ehle. It revolves around the events leading up to the New York Times story that exposed Harvey Weinstein and his crimes against women for nearly three decades.
The movie functions as a procedural investigative drama similar to All the President’s Men and Spotlight. Check out a trailer for it below.
The driving force behind the movie is its two leads. Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan portray Megan Thowey and Jodie Kantor respectively. It approaches the details of the events head-on. For that reason, it might not be an easy watch for some people. It gets candidly descriptive and refuses to pull its punches. Furthermore, it’s frustrating to observe the way an established system has worked against the victims for too long.
Ultimately, it brings further light to these issues and shows how the hard work of these two journalists and their team uncovered the truth and nailed a predator. One of the weaker spots, unfortunately, is the pacing. The narrative doesn’t flow as smoothly as it could have. Some of the scenes also drag on at certain points within the conflict. There’s definitely a tighter version of the script within it.
She Said constantly jumps between different victims’ stories. This is one point where the pacing can be better. Striking the right balance is difficult and there needed to be a smoother balance to the focus of the different stories.
She Said is written, directed and produced by women. It puts women at the centre of its cast and conflict. Moreover, it’s a movie crafted and brought to life by a team of women. Through this, it allows them to be the voice that carries the movie and ultimately proves to be the right choice.
However, it doesn’t reach into the abuse prevalent within Hollywood compared to what it could have. While it focuses on Harvey Weinstein, abuse extends throughout Hollywood and is an issue every major studio has faced. This includes the distributor of this movie (Universal). That’s not to say the narrative doesn’t at least imply it.
It’s clear Hollywood is trying to wash its hand of any instance where it kept silent. This is further proven by the fact Harvey Weinstein’s abuse was well-known to most prevalent actors, directors and producers yet it was the article at the centre of this movie that became his downfall.
All in all, She Said is a straightforward movie about journalistic integrity. It doesn’t necessarily have cinematic flare, but it is an equally heartbreaking, frustrating, but hopeful story and one that brings to light the realities of how ugly Hollywood can be, if not a bit limited in how big of the picture it’s actually calling out.