SHE SAID (2022)

Critic No. 308

Director: Maria Schrader

Written by: Rebecca Lenkiewicz

Produced by: Annapurna Pictures, Plan B Entertainment

Casts: Carey Mulligan, Zoe Kazan, Patricia Clarkson, Andre Bracugher

Music: Nicholas Braier

Language: English

Genre: Drama, History

SYNOPSIS: 

New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor break one of the most important stories in a generation - a story that helped ignite a movement and shattered decades of silence around the subject of sexual assault in Hollywood.

REVIEW:

The fight against the patriarchy, and the long-standing structures that created and enabled the pain inflicted by Harvey Weinstein’s darkest assaults, is hardly over. The New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) and Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) is a truly historical moment worth celebrating and showcasing, and “She Said,” based on Kantor and Twohey’s book about their investigation, is more than just facts and figures. Maria Schrader expresses the painful journey in an uplifting thriller showing the difficulty that journalists face, and the courage it takes from all sides to bring truth to power.

With some interesting use of voice recordings and symbolically shot docu drama-ish flashbacks. ‘She Said’ brings us closer to the painful moments of the actresses and workers of Weinstein who faced traumatic moments which ran for 3 to 4 decades. In one powerful conversation scene between Weinstein's lawyer Lanny and the journalists, the former mentions how men from the older generation have a different opinion about consensual and still cannot wrap around the idea of what is wrong and right when they go hard on women in an entitled way. The film slaps us like this in many instances of how unbalanced and backward people are living among us. Don’t even get me started about Trump’s sexual harassment/rape case that starts the film. 

‘She Said’ puts faces to real events that led to the “Me Too” movement but hardly in a world in which harassment has hardly ceased. Mulligan is particularly great, establishing Twohey’s courage and persistence without overdoing it, and Kazan is subtly effective as well. Both of them are not your typical larger-than-life heroes but people who were looked up to for their resistance to chase the justice that many silently suffering women deserved. My favourite part of the film is where before the publication date and after hearing a traumatic story about Weinstein, Mulligan looks at her baby daughter and smiles at her almost showing the dilemma of whether to feel relieved that the story is going out or to be worried for her daughter who will soon be among the patriarchal sexual predators who are lurking around.  

‘She Said’ might not be a straight-out cinematic experience with dramatized frames, but definitely an engaging story that needs to be heard and in fact inspire many to step out and expose even bigger crimes involving those who are hiding behind the privileged, rich shields. 

VERDICT:

‘She Said’ is a strongly performed intellectual drama that shows the intricacies of genuine investigative journalism and the power it has to unveil some deep, dark truth.  

CELLULOID METER- 4/5: