She Said - 2022
Updated: Dec 13, 2022
She Said relates a story that NEEDS to be told. It is a tale that is, unfortunately, vital in our time. It chronicles the years long, hard won, revelatory publication of the New York Times article which brought down a Hollywood baron. A man who doubled as a perverse, wee little man who used his power and authority to extract vitality and naivete from would-be starlets everywhere. The monster was, of course, the sexually abusive Harvey Weinstein; his conquerors, the reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, giving voice to the traumatic screams and whispers of far too many women around the globe. (A number which has swelled to over 80 since these groundbreaking words dropped on the world).
Yes, this is the story of two women, two New York Times reporters who assembled the eyewitness testimony that led to the takedown of the Miramax founder. But it's about all the other voices too. See, there is an interesting balance at the heart of this picture which is found right there in the title, a provocative denomination that begs the crucial question - "Who is she?" The answer, as it turns out, is more complicated than it would originally seem. "She" here is obviously Twohey and Kantor. But then again, it is also Ashley Judd and Gwyneth Paltrow, Rose McGowan, Laura Madden, Rowena Chiu, and Zelda Perkins.
It is these separate camps - the chroniclers and the eyewitnesses - which form the real push and pull at the heart of any critical analysis of She Said. In the course of its runtime, it becomes quite evident that director Maria Schrader's vision was to foreground the expressions of trauma from the women who actually suffered them. As such, she chooses to mostly remain a passive observer to the proceedings. This film is uncluttered with quick edits or an intrusive score. There are no nifty camera tricks, or propulsive crosscutting between the two different women as they pursue their sources. Rather, the picture portrays the grinding, sometimes slow and dull, but always complicated work that real journalism and source-checking is. It is a movie which rings true; it's just not always terrifically cinematic.
That is not to say that the performances are drab and one-note either. On the contrary, the work of the well-rounded cast is one of She Said's greatest assets. Carey Mulligan is the more obvious "awards bait" role, due to her more brazen nature. She gets all the cutting one-liners and delicious toss offs. It is Mulligan's Twohey who stares down Weinstein and dares him to blink first. I will not be surprised to see her on many year end awards' ballots.
It is my personal opinion, however, that Zoe Kazan is really the heart of this picture. As Kantor, she is the one traveling the world and sitting down face-to-face with these women. She appears to be the more tortured of the two in the face of such horrendous tales of violation. (Twohey is far more cynical, but this could also be due to her previous work wrestling with similar allegations towards Donald Trump, a fact the book makes clearer than the opening of the film). In any case, I was the most moved by Kazan's remarkable depiction of the globe-trotting, courageous, and whip-smart Jodi Kantor.
There are still two other forces to behold. One of my big critiques of the film is how much the character of Rebecca Corbett, played by Patricia Clarkson, is sidelined here. In the actual story, as told in the book, Corbett is the main sounding board for these women as information arrives from varied sources. It appears she had the perfect touch of knowing what to pursue, how to advise the women, and what buttons to press. However, here she is mostly relegated to some variation of "Go check those sources, ladies!" Andre Braugher's Dean Baquet, by contrast, is given far more fat to chew on. His quips over the phone with Weinstein and bold challenges of the mogul offer rare moments of levity and even humor in a story which is otherwise deathly serious.
Having noted all these things in praise of the work, I must now move to a few glaring deficiencies. This is not to say that She Said isn't an outstanding production. It is. But I think there is actually an all-time journalism film hiding in here somewhere just begging to get out. I've said previously that Schrader opted to underscore the victim's stories foremost. This results in a film which takes great pains to detail nearly every conversation and moment with surgical precision. Unfortunately, this results in a work that feels about a mile wide and an inch deep. Though the actors are all doing stupendous work, their characterizations remain archetypal and thin. I got the distinct feeling in multiple places that I was watching less "real people" and more talking heads. Schrader wants to get us through the events so badly that the dialogue just becomes tertiary in a cutting frenzy of victim visits and phone calls.
In my head (I know, scary place to be), there’s a film in here which slows down a bit. It's not afraid to deepen the moments between the women and their spouses, for instance, because the movie clearly hints at that relational sacrifice. The grind of writing is hard work of a type which demands not only the balancing act of stacks of paper and phone contacts on your office desk but all that is left behind in one's home life as well.
Moreover, when you think of the milieu of this film, pictures like Spotlight come to mind. But obviously with a narrative containing two reporters who grow in kinship, All the President’s Men is kind of the gold standard. This picture is modeled after that one in significant respects. It's a tale of two individuals taking on a corrupt system with far-reaching implications. Still, what is missing here is any of the banter and connection we find between Woodward and Bernstein in that other work. Now, indubitably the work here feels more dire, but there is still a chance for Schrader's film to travel down a few side paths and let us feel these women as real people with beating hearts and competing loyalties.
As a matter of fact, what made this abundantly clear to me was the few times that She Said actually DID move in these rhythms. The short sequence where Twohey tells off a lurker at a bar does wonders to demonstrate her tenacity and conviction. More in fact than any speeches in a newsroom or in dialogue with an eyewitness. Furthermore, the few times that the movie stops in its tracks are with the extended monologues of Samantha Morton and Jennifer Ehle. These are, to be certain, the best moments of the whole picture! I neglected to mention them above because I wanted to highlight perhaps the very best performances of all in these two scenes. It's the human moments that drive the drama home, and I longed for a few more of them in the film's runtime.
All said, however, I think this one is a win for the writers. (Hooray!) It's a resounding throat-clearing for those who wish to claim that solid journalism does not matter. Perhaps most importantly, it's a pretty damn good facsimile of the events that unfolded in the late 2010's. A historical record of the birth of a movement and the changing of cultural tides around the treatment of women in the workplace. Behind the eyewitnesses were two courageous, indefatigable women. And behind them, a female director with a vision to deliver the goods straight down the middle. With She Said, you'll find a solid investigative drama unadorned with bells and whistles, yet delivering the goods of a critical story well told.
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