‘She Said’ Movie Review: #MeToo Movement Journalism Drama Plays It Safe
Director Maria Schrader’s She Said tells the harrowing journey of two journalists and the brave women who survived Harvey Weinstein’s gross abuse of power. The inception of the #MeToo movement is an essential story with monumental meaning and importance. However, She Said gives urgency to the fact that who tells the narrative and how it’s chronicled holds substantial significance. Schrader and screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz are well-intentioned, but this film lacks a much-needed emotional punch.
‘She Said’ explores the journalistic efforts to take down Harvey Weinstein
New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) follows a lead about sexual harassment and assault in Hollywood by media giant Harvey Weinstein. However, she discovers that it runs much deeper and darker than she ever could have imagined. Jodi brings fellow New York Times journalist Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) in to help get to the bottom of the story and hold Weinstein responsible.
Based on Kantor and Twohey’s book of the same name, the film adaptation sees the two women juggle their family lives with their increasingly treacherous investigation. Weinstein grows wise to their digging around, refusing to go down without a fight that puts their physical and psychological safety in jeopardy.
The story gives power back to the survivors
She Said puts the audience in the frame of mind of its time period right away. Women courageously come forward to speak up against now-former U.S. President Donald Trump, but he won the election regardless. Megan gave the investigation her all, but Fox News and anonymous figures launched attacks on her following the publication of her story. However, this would only be the beginning of what was to come.
Jodi investigates all possible places of employment with potential sexual assault issues, but nothing could have prepared her for what she would face with the Weinstein case. All of the women, including the journalists, in She Said work against seemingly impossible odds and under the thumbs of powerful men. Many of the sources are under NDAs or fear destroying their own lives as they know them for speaking out. Meanwhile, Megan and Jodi must always look over their shoulder should one of Weinstein’s spies be lurking there.
Audiences already familiar with the real-life story behind She Said know how the series of events play out before the lights begin to dim. Schrader sticks to these moments, placing emphasis on the testimonies of the women who endured Weinstein’s cruelty. Lenkiewicz’s screenplay fills the spaces in between with the journalistic process and how the reporters’ work bleeds into their family lives.
‘She Said’ falls to Hollywood conventions
There will be inevitable comparisons to 2016’s Academy Award Best Picture winner Spotlight, despite its journalistic efforts tackling the child molestation taking place in the Catholic Church system. However, Tom McCarthy’s direction captures more stirring tension within the newsroom than Schrader squeezes out of She Said. Her decision to focus on visual descriptors in the women’s stories is powerful, as the picture slowly moves the audience through empty environments holding unspeakable pain and trauma.
But, Schrader does capitalize on the film’s greatest strength – utterly engrossing performances from Mulligan and Kazan. Mulligan is particularly hypnotizing through the film’s quietest and most unassuming moments. The way she silently stares down Weinstein in a surprise meeting draws the viewer in without having to hear a word of dialogue. Meanwhile, Kazan showcases an electric range that is both undoubtedly sincere and deeply emotional.
She Said‘s pacing moves along, but the narrative comes to a screeching halt when it pans over to Megan and Jodi’s family life. It’s an insubstantial plot element that minimally adds to the characters’ plight, but it’s underbaked. Their journalistic efforts and their lives at home don’t connect in a meaningful enough way.
The investigation surrounding Weinstein and the rising of the #MeToo movement are monumental and it’s a story well worth telling. However, a major Hollywood studio doesn’t feel like the appropriate place for this narrative to come from. She Said is a procedural journalistic drama that sacrifices the dramatic weight this story deserves in favor of a historical account that comes across as overly tidy. Perhaps the most substantial issue is that its ending is so neat that it gives off the impression that Weinstein’s conviction means the story is over. It’s a victory worth embracing, but gross abuse of power in the workplace is far from defeated and there’s a lot more work to be done.
She Said comes to theaters on Nov. 18.
How to get help: In the U.S., call the RAINN National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 to connect with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area.
