I adore journalism movies, to put it absolutely plainly. So when one comes along with many incredible actors from a true life story that is frankly as horrifying as it is endlessly fascinating, then the prospect of its success is a very promising one. Such was the case with She Said, the story of the New York Time’s reporting and investigate expose on the history of abuse and sexual misconduct in the life and career of Harvey Weinstein, from the book of the same name written by the two chief journalists on the story, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, played here by Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan. The film itself does have many great things going for it, however overall I can’t help but admit the whole thing felt a little flat for me.
She Said is
in many ways (regrettably not wholly in regards to quality) the closest that I
have had to All the President’s Men in my lifetime and in many ways when
I discuss to myself my criticisms of this movie, I can’t help but rallying them
back and forth with that masterpiece Pakula classic. For instance I find myself
whilst watching She Said thinking “where is the tension here, we know
how this all ends”, but of course anyone in 1976 would also know how that
Woodward and Bernstein reporting on Watergate concluded. But in many ways I say
that She Said felt flat to me, because it lacked a little grit and truth
about it. Now let me elaborate by bringing first to the table the films
strongest elements, Rebecca Lenkiewicz with her screenplay has structured the
film largely around a series of confessional meetings with our two lead
reporters as a series of women go about describing in pained detail and tragic
reflection their horrid experiences of abuse with Weinstein. Each of these
scenes are so painfully crafted on the page and shot so still and observing by
director Maria Schrader that each is more impacting than the last. Although the
film has a true major ensemble of great performances, both Samantha Morton and
Jennifer Ehle deliver in one large scene each (and a few other moments with
Ehle) give two of the most affecting performances of the year – both so
incredibly well delivered that you can’t help but be shook to the core.
Schrader understands the power and importance of all of these scenes and makes
them the through-line of the film, however ultimately this ends up clashing
with much of the tension and drive of what the film is attempting to be in
tandem; an investigative thriller. Overall the film just time and time again
lacks a pace and a drive, made even more infuriating by the times when that
drive and grit does appear and we realise that such things are most certainly
in Schrader’s arsenal. Just in this case severely underused.
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understandable and clear choice regarding how Weinstein is presented also leads
to multiple scenes and conversations being obscured, fragmented or not shown at
all. The film is of course presenting very clear its goals with its title
alone, however in many cases it does just feel like missed opportunities for
some thrilling drama. The film instead chooses to focus on the droll and
exhausting work that leads to these sorts of stories coming to be, in between appalling
monologues of abuse. As aforementioned all of these monologues are powerful and
work and all of the scenes highlighting the efforts of our reporters also work,
they just both don’t come together to make the sort of drama that this film at
times tries to be. Schrader makes multiple interesting choices regarding use of
real actresses, aswell as true to life audio recordings, aswell as use of a
series of very skilled actors and imitators, all coming together to make a
believable world. It’s the screenplay at times that feels less believable, a
few too many times near the start of the film dialogue comes off as forced and
un-natural and for lack of a better way to say it; ‘stating the obvious’, which
of course is not needed when for the most part this films audience all already
know what is happening in the film, and for that matter how it will all come to
finish. Mulligan and Kazan are both great in the film, they really are, but the
film has two great moments where the banter of a Wood-Stein pairing comes out
and it’s enjoyable, the regret is that these are in my head the only two
moments such a thing is seen. As already stated Kazan and Mulligan are but two
performances in an incredibly well assembled ensemble all giving great
performances, the issue does not lie there. But also… it’s hard to say where
the actual issue does lie. It all just feels a little too clean and a little
too flat.
A solid 7/10 film that is very well acted and constructed for the most part. It’s hard not to compare it to better films of its ilk, with the film being in such a specific sub-genre of dramas, however the story and the investigation itself will always be troublingly intriguing and disturbingly prescient. Mulligan and Kazan take us through a series of incredibly powerful and very well acted exchanges, however Shrader as a director and Lenkiewicz as a writer can’t quite get the pace, the tension, the drive or the overall power of what these films can be when they are at their very best. I say often (far too often really to call myself a good review writer) that comparison is a fruitless form of criticism, but time and time again She Said ends up the sort of film where you think of other better reporter movies and wonder why this very solid film just doesn’t quite hit all the buttons that those better films so very much do.
P.S. It’s not that this film is not subtle, however the pained subtlety and brilliance of The Assistant still sticks with me to this day – just the pure and profound excellence of that sublime film remains with me… I very much doubt this film will have the same staying power, despite it sharing much of the same DNA in presentation, and naturally, in subject matter.
- - Thomas Carruthers
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