Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey’s explosive New York Times report on Harvey Weinstein’s decades-long abuse behind the scenes at Miramax and his own company broke Hollywood open, exposing a new generation of workplace tyrants and sex pests, and creating, hopefully, some social shifts for good.
Five years after the rise of the #MeToo hashtag and three years after the publication of Kantor and Twohey’s book, Hollywood seeks to tell the tale of its own reckoning in a film of the same, succinct title: “She Said.”
Director Maria Schrader (“Unorthodox,” “I’m Your Man”The film is called a “Hollywoodization”Kantor and Twohey had to endure tedious and tiring events in order to get their witnesses to sign the recording. This included dramatic phone calls and door slams as well as screaming arguments. Over the course of many months, the two reporters spoke to dozens of former employees of Weinstein’s in order to understand the degree and perpetuation of abuse that was protected by lawyers and PR companies and peers alike.
Carey Mulligan portrays Twohey as a tough and determined woman. “All The President’s Men”Type, her low drawl is both wry yet persistently frustrated. Zoe Kazan plays Kantor. She is more soft-spoken and open-minded, and perhaps more active in listening to the women over the phone.
Surrounded by a coterie of great supporting actors — a wonderful Andre Braugher as Dean Baquet is a smart choice; Patricia Clarkson as Rebecca Corbett is rock-solid, here sporting big chunky jewelry in each scene — “She Said”Even when it seems didactic or vaguely exploitative, it is always entertaining. There’s something a little unsavory about this project coming so soon after the story at hand, as though Hollywood still may not have had the chance to learn from it. But there’s nothing too glaringly obscene about “She Said,”Despite any doubts, it is much more interested than abuse journalism in dramatizing it.
Jennifer Ehle (Jennifer Morton) and Samantha Morton (Samuel Morton) play tricky roles as former employees at Weinstein. Both must navigate the complex legal boundaries of what they are allowed and not to say. Morton, an underutilized, but great performer, hits the mark with her main scene, a tea date at Kantor, that alters the course of the investigation. At times, the film touches on reality (at least one of the story’s original survivors appears in the film herself) in moments that feel a bit half-hearted, if not well-intended.
Luckily, screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz (“Colette,” “Ida”) keeps things rolling along, never wallowing too much in any one victim’s suffering or any hiccup in the editorial process. Her script is clear in emphasizing Weinstein’s role, but also that he was supported and assisted by a system that allows him to continue the crime, including NDAs and settlements.
At times, “She Said”This feels too much like an adaptation rather than a procedural. Scenes just kind of go into one another, with no sense of narrative cohesion. Lenkiewicz demonstrates that the lack of cohesion is not only a problem for the Weinstein women but also for all women.
These things get a little too explanatory. It’s as if the film assumes its viewers are not familiar with the allegations or the bombshell nature. The film may be addressing the problem of indifference toward sexual harrassment or abuse throughout the country. Like “Spotlight”It was before it. “She Said” hopes to shed light on a topic on which still — despite a vague sense of knowing — has not received the outrage it deserves, with more anger still at abusers than systems. This movie is more loud and direct than the others, but it’s still a powerful film that aims to make a big splash rather than a ripple. Schrader does not double down on abuse scenes, but the actual locations where they took place: high-end hotel rooms that are far from the reach of anyone who would stop it.
It’s not a particularly artful film, with one too many exterior shots of The New York Times’ office and a rote score by Nicholas Brittell used to emphasize that what’s happening is Important, but it’s tough not to get increasingly invested in Kantor and Twohey’s work. They traveled far and wide, sometimes even sacrificing their family time to get the story out. This is why it is so important to stress that both of them were working mothers. MothersThis is possibly to conjure an additional degree of goodness.
Women who may have or not have a partner. “have it all”Like everyone else, they struggle and doubt. When it comes time to copy-edit the story, it’s hard not to feel like the two have gone through hell and back to whatever awaits them, and us, on the other side.
“She Said”Universal Pictures opens Nov. 18 in US theaters