There is a phrase habitually used when talking about hearsay allegations, not only in rape, but in assault and many other areas – that phrase is “He said, she said.”
In 2022, “She Said” graced our movie screens. Was it a good movie? Let’s review it.
“She said” is the story of two New York Times reporters, Jodi Kantor and Meagan Twohey and their battle to write about Harvey Weinstein, and his actions towards female actors and staff. Megan and Jodi took their time with the case, ensuring that all the relevant information was gathered, the plan being to get a number of accusers on the record at once. If that wasn’t possible, the next step would be to get one prominent survivor to go ‘on the record’ and count on others following that lead
Carey Mulligan plays Twohey and Zoe Kazan plays Kantor in the movie, demonstrating well how they balance motherhood, babies, family, exhaustion, and post-natal depression. The film boasts some wonderful roles. Samantha Morton is Weinstein former assistant. Jennifer Ehle plays one of his former employees. Patricia Clarkson steps up to play NYT editor Rebecca Corbett, but the highest praise should be for Ashley Judd, who stepped up as herself. It takes a lot of bravery to take on a role in a movie like this, but to take it on when you’re telling your own story, takes a different kind of boldness. Ashley Judd took the role as herself and in doing so, gave courage to so many who had undergone abuse, both males and females. Harvey Weinstein is never seen full-on in the movie but the way he is defined, as well as his lawyers’ interventions, are done extremely well.
Any film about newspapers has an uphill challenge. What’s that challenge? Make reporting look interesting. Reporting is interesting but not glamourous. This film couples’ images of Carey and Zoe, as Twohey and Kantor, striding through New York streets and posts it against the sight of them fighting anxiety, depression and tears as they spend time away from their families. It looks at them having doors slammed in their faces when they explain why they are there, as well as long hours spent driving/flying to interview people.
This film was beautifully made. Screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz did an incredible job adapting Twohey and Kantors own book. Maria Schrader`s direction was exquisite, giving poise and intelligence to what is a difficult subject matter with a well-known person at its core.
This movie scored 91% with its Rotten Tomatoes audience score and 88% with its critic’s score. It is very well deserved.
