She Said

Maria Schrader directs this adaptation of Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey’s book about their New York Times investigation into Harvey Weinstein. Twohey (Carey Mulligan) fresh from working on a story about sexual misconduct by soon to be President Donald Trump, teams up with Kantor (Zoe Kazan) as she starts to piece together stories of systemic sexual abuse in Hollywood and the system of enablers who covered it up. This leads to Weinstein and an investigation that uncovers wide scale abuse. The story deals with the industry cover up, the levels of abuse, the women it impacted and the intimidation they faced to keep quiet.

There are two things to consider with She Said, the film and the real story it tells.

Let’s deal with the story first. It is powerful and shocking in its scale and the scale of the efforts to cover it up. It covers the incredible work by Twohey and Kantor and their team. The endless pursuit of the story, the intimidation they faced and the unwavering commitment to keep going. The story is shocking, it’s shocking that it is so current and shocking in knowing it’s not just Weinstein and the film industry where powerful men are using their position to abuse and victimise women and those without the power or voice to fight back. It’s a hugely important story and critical it is played to a wide audience and that She Said does powerfully.

The film, itself is almost less important. It is a pretty perfunctory investigative journalism film. It hits all the beats you’d expect one on one interviews, chasing down hard to find witnesses and meetings over dinner, coffee and in the office. Performances are fine Mulligan and Kazan are well supported by Patricia Clarkson and Andre Braugher. But also importantly key names in the real story including Ashley Judd and Gwyneth Paltrow.

She Said is a solid but unremarkable drama. However, the story of the horrific abuse it tells is incredible. The purpose this film serves is bringing that story to the big screen and a wide audience and for that reason it deserves to be seen.