Film Review - She Said (2022)

 She Said is based off of the novel by New York Times Journalists Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) and Megan Twoey (Carey Mulligan) who were also the main reporters who helped expose Harvey Weinstein’s many abuse allegations in October of 2017, this film version stars Kazan and Mulligan as the two reporters who did the long hard work it takes to bring down a powerful person who has helped squash this story time and time again and how its writing helped to launch a major movement worldwide.

 

She Said is a very good film and first off I have to praise director Maria Schneider and screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz who not only adapt this story for the big screen in the kind of journalism film we expect after movies like All the Presidents Men and Spotlight and the Post but also they take the time to take you into the private lives of both of the reporters.

 

These 2 ladies who are very well played by Kazan and Mulligan both individually and as a pair but also you see the fact that these 2 reporters aren’t the Redford/Hoffman types who were working in newsrooms since they first hit working age and still had pimples on their faces no these 2 are everyday mothers with young children in one case and the other has just had a baby and returned from maternity leave while also going through post partum depression.

 

Another great performance is by Samantha Morton as one of the many assistants who have a story of their own to tell and this movie spells out in pretty direct detail what it was these young women went through and it’s a hard watch because you sit there and think “This is horrible” and I felt horribly for these ladies who thought they had a dream job only for it to become a nightmare and I love dark movies but this was tough for me and women deserve better.

 

And lastly the way that this movie handles Harvey is also very well done, more than once I was comparing him in my mind to Jabba the Hutt from Return of the Jedi, this large ominous and powerful figure who if he was displeased essentially blackballed their careers (and there is a cartoon of him as Jabba drawn by Mark Knight from the Herald Sun) thankfully the business has seen the back of him.

 

And so that was She Said and it is a very good film if a tough watch given the nature of its story and some of its details but everyone involved deserves big kudos for handling this material with great care and putting the focus in the right place as it easily could not have in the wrong hands, 3 and a half out of 5.