'She Said' movie review: Faithfully Sublime Recant

Still from She Said

Film: She Said
Cast: Carey Mulligan, Zoe Kazan, Patricia Clarkson, Andre Barugher, Jennifer Ehle, Samantha Morton, Ashley Judd
Director: Maria Schrader
Rating: '3.5/5
Runtime: 128 mins

This film based on the New York Times investigation by reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor (who both garnered a Pulitzer Prize for this work), is a faithful representation of the manner in which one of the most important stories in our generation - a story that helped launch the #MeToo movement, developed and broke into an ongoing public outcry. The story helped shatter decades of silence around the subject of sexual assault in Hollywood and created a ripple effect in movie industries and other organisations all across the globe.

Directed by Maria Schrader and written by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, this film is adapted from the 2019 non-fiction book "She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement," written by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. The report basically exposed accusations against Weinstein for crimes and misdeeds against women (including some of Weinstein's former employees alongside famous actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashley Judd) spanning several decades, from as far back as the 1980s.

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The movie hovers around 2016 and 2017, New York City with brief forays into California, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Italy, while taking us through its dramatic expose of a world of gender-based entitlement and oppression that made victims of women from all walks of life - the working-class, middle-class and the wealthy. This is a well-acted historical drama about investigative journalism seeking justice for crimes. The tone and pace are that of a procedural crime drama and the narrative gives the audience an intimate knowledge of how reporters work their way through to a ‘breaking' story. The 2017 report helped spur the downfall of Harvey Weinstein of Miramax and The Weinstein Company fame - and that itself is high-drama for an avid movie watcher.

The narrative opens with a flashback. It's 1992 and a 21-year-old female production assistant on a film set in Ireland encounters some sort of trauma while at work. We see her crying copiously as she runs on a city street, and then the narrative cuts back to the present in 2016 when Rose McGowan's accusations against an anonymous movie mogul was floating around as broadsheet fodder. Schrader's film puts the focus on the survivors, exposing their trauma and pain as they reluctantly-hesitantly come out of their self-imposed exile and gather strength to speak out against the atrocities committed by an all-too powerful man. The young production assistant reveals herself as Zelda Perkins (Samantha Morton in a brief but stand-out moment in the film) 25 years after her horrifying experience. She asserts, "This is bigger than Weinstein. This is about the system protecting abusers."

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This is a woman-oriented film with the two reporters becoming its anchor as they wade through the personal and professional in their meticulous pursuit of a story that could change the very manner in which mammoth organisations behave towards their employees. The New York Times' supportive editors demand a high level of accountability and evidence before publishing the report. Patricia Clarkson as assistant managing editor Rebecca Corbett and Andre Braugher as New York Times managing editor Dean Baquet, have some key decisions to make as they navigate the makings of a story that could well blow up in their faces. Voice cameos representing Trump, Paltrow, and McGowan add weight to the realism here. Very realistic performances aid a treatment that eschews flab and keeps the narrative concentrated around the crime, its victims, and the power misuse behind it all. Nicholas Britell's musical score creates inveigling and pulsating notes that add to the movie's emotionally cathartic engagement. There might not be anything unique in the manner in which Schrader tells this story but her passionate, intense and sensitive approach comes through quite effectively!