Kazan, Mulligan shine in drama that throws the Spotlight on Weinstein
She Said (M, 129 mins) Directed by Maria Schrader Reviewed by
Aclever, compelling and character-filled combination of All the President’s Men, Zodiac and Sleepers, Spotlight was a deserved winner of the Oscar for Best Picture in 2016.
With a strong ensemble cast and an immersive shooting style, it was a fantastic recreation of a small group of journalists’ determination to get to the truth and a paean to what then seemed like the dying art of in-depth investigative journalism.
Set mainly in the latter part of the following year, if nothing else, Maria Schrader’s (I’m Your Man, Netflix’s Unorthodox) She Said provides a fascinating look at the changing face, methodology and practices involved in exposing wrongdoers. Instead of the mainly grizzled, middle-aged men chainsmoking, chained to their desks in a basement of the ageing Boston Globe building at the turn of the century portrayed in Spotlight, we have two women in the bright, open-plan New York Times office, both trying to juggle their home life and work.
And they’re constantly making calls in an attempt to find someone who will go on the record to back up the mountain of evidence they have uncovered.
But, as Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) and Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) find, that’s an almost impossible task.
Risks to their career, life and a weariness at having been ignored in the past, mean their efforts to reach out are mostly met with fear, resistance, or downright hostility.
Cleverly opening with the investigations into allegations of then Presidential candidate
Donald Trump’s pattern of inappropriate behaviour towards women, She Said establishes the prevailing climate of public indifference and white male privilege as he sweeps into the White House and those who spoke
out found themselves humiliated, ostracised and further abused.
As Kantor turns her attentions to sexual harassment in American workplaces towards Hollywood she finds high-profile actors are unwilling to go ‘‘on the record’’ about their encounters with lecherous and abusive producers.
‘‘I’ve talked in the past and nothing happens,’’ Rose McGowan sighs. ‘‘It does damage to shout – and no-one listens.’’
But as she follows up on a growing number of leads, one name keeps on coming up – Harvey Weinstein. Multiple women recount horrifying, repeated incidents of bullying and emotional abuse dating back to the 1990s. Of business meetings in which they were faced with threats and sexual demands that left them feeling distraught and diminished.
Joined by Twohey, just back from maternity leave, the duo uncover evidence of payouts, nondisclosure agreements and previous investigations being shut down by the powerful and seemingly untouchable movie mogul. And as they desperately look for someone willing to break their silence, Twohey and Kantor find themselves the subject of intimidation by Weinstein and his associates, as well as potentially facing the possibility of being scooped.
Based on the pair’s 2017 investigations and subsequent 2019 book, She Said benefits greatly from two terrific performances from Kazan (The Plot Against America) and Mulligan (Promising Young Woman). They’re not ‘‘showy’’, Oscar-baiting turns, but the pair do a great job of portraying the emotional toll and mental strain their increasingly frustrating and seemingly fruitless efforts have on them.
It probably helps that in director Schrader and screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz (Ida, Disobedience, Colette) they have two veteran actors who know how to get the best out of them.
Supporting the leading duo is a deep bench of talent, including Samantha Morton, Jennifer Ehle,
Patricia Clarkson, Andre Braugher and Ashley Judd (playing herself). Real-life footage is kept to a minimum, audio recreations are used evocatively and effectively and Weinstein himself is cleverly deployed only as a disembodied voice, or shot from behind.
While She Said perhaps doesn’t feel as powerful an emotional rollercoaster as it should, it now forms part of a compelling trilogy of films about Weinstein.
For documentary fans, there’s Ursula Macfarlane’s damning 2019 portrait Untouchable. If you want something that’s truly immersive and emotionally involving then The Assistant is a nightmarish look at one young woman’s experiences of power imbalance in the movie industry, brought to life by a brilliant Julia Garner. All three are very worthy of your time.