She Said: Movie Review

Cast: Carey Mulligan, Zoe Kazan, Ashley Judd, Patricia Clarkson, Andre Braugher, Jennifer Ehle, Samantha Morton

Director: Maria Schrader

There are moments in Maria Schrader's She Said where the movie transcends its relatively formulaic film about the journalism that dug into the sordid history of a modern Hollywood monster and shines.

But a large pall is cast over proceedings in the form of the relatively recent revelations of what Harvey Weinstein did to his victims. Wisely though, this film doesn't choose to make Weinstein the "star" of proceedings, preferring instead to give voice to the victims and in giving Ashley Judd screentime, a bizarre redemption story for one so viciously robbed of her voice.

Centring on Mulligan's Megan Twohey as she becomes a mum after breaking the Trump abuse story and also Zoe Kazan's naive yet grizzled Jodi Kantor as they investigate claims of systemic abuse in the workplace for the New York Times, Schrader's film never really feels like it's weighed down by its 2 hour run time.

Picking up the kind of montages you'd have seen in Spotlight or All The President's Men of people huddled round computers and typing, as well as doing good ole fashioned "journalisming", She Said boils down the complexities of the case into a simplistic, easy-to-digest audience piece that revels in its earnestness and forthright approach to telling the story.

While Mulligan and Kazan are solid compelling watches, the most powerful moments go to Ehle's Laura Madden, Samantha Morton's Zelda Perkins and Ashley Judd. Yet it's also in these moments that Schrader muddies proceedings using cutaways of potential victim scenes to try and hammer home the message they're espousing. But they suffer the opposite effect feeling like the drama's being overegged, when the performances are powerful enough to deliver.

There are some powerhouse moments here in a film that never really goes over the top with its cast or its OST, and while there's an irony of a Hollywood film is being told about a monster in Hollywood that Hollywood kept quiet for decades at play, aside from one almost 4th wall breaking speech about how abusers are still out there, She Said more than delivers a film that's a solid and grounded watch about a horrific subject.

Whether audiences will embrace it is another matter, as there's no real cathartic resolution here for those in the know that Weinstein's legacy chillingly lives on.

But for a film that takes the voices of those it needs to amplify, She Said does more than enough - and could be a contender for Oscar nominations when the time comes.