Film review: She Said is a five-star dramatisation of the women who brought down Harvey Weinstein

She Said: a dramatic dive into the investigation that toppled Harvey Weinstein

★★★★★

Movies about Hollywood can be wearingly self-congratulatory, but She Said (15) isn’t a movie about Hollywood, and nor is it a movie about Harvey Weinstein, who is the subject of a New York Times investigation by investigative reporters Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) and Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan). 

Instead, this is a film about the women who hunted down the truth about Weinstein, and those of his ilk. 

It opens in 2016, with Twohey breaking a story about numerous allegations of sexual harassment by the then-presidential hopeful Donald Trump; when Trump is subsequently elected President, Twohey is understandably cynical about the value of her work. 

Even so, she joins forces with Kantor, who is investigating a number of allegations about Harvey Weinstein, one of the most respected and feared producers in Hollywood, at which point 

She Said evolves into a classic account of investigative reporting – think All the President’s Men, or Spotlight – as Twohey and Kantor come up against a wall of silence built from NDAs, gagging orders and financial settlements, all designed to protect the men who abuse women. 

Carey Mulligan is excellent in She Said  

Adapted by Rebecca Lenkiewicz from the book written by Kantor and Twohey, and directed by Maria Schrader, She Said is a cri de coeur that unfolds with a grim, awful inevitability, and not only because we already know the result of the investigation. 

Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan are excellent here, in part because their parts are written to reflect their real lives – these are superb investigative reporters, of course, but they’re also mothers and daughters and sisters, and the story includes experiences of difficult pregnancies, post-natal depression and breast cancer. 

In other words, we get a holistic approach to a life in which battles must be fought on multiple fronts, and not least because the Harvey Weinsteins of this world don’t operate in a vacuum: they are enabled, protected and cocooned from the consequences of their actions. 

An excellent ensemble cast includes Patricia Clarkson, Andre Braugher and Jennifer Ehle, although pride of place in the supporting ranks goes to Ashley Judd, playing herself as one of Harvey Weinstein’s victims and first accusers. 

(cinema release)