She Said tells the story of two young mothers who are journalists for the New York Times, blowing the lid on film producer Harvey Weinstein’s many years of sexual abuse and wield of power while in charge at Miramax.
Directed by Maria Schrader and featuring a screenplay by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, this well publicised story is more than a documentary about chasing the evidence against Weinstein.
Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) and Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan), with encouragement from Times editors Rebecca Corbett (Patricia Clarkson) and Dean Baquet (Andre Braugher), are the two brave tenacious journalists who join forces to expose workplace harassment, rape coverups and manipulation.
Weinstein becomes their main focus, despite threats from his team towards the New York Times and the eventual revelations from the frightened, traumatised woman scared of the worldwide media exposure.
The reporters’ gentle coaxing and understanding cuts through some of the gag orders in place, encouraging these women to speak out, despite all the “off the record” interviews.
Ashley Judd appears as herself and Gwyneth Paltrow narrates the true-life story, which kickstarted the #MeToo movement with about 82 women coming forward to help bring down Weinstein.
The film also shines a light on the understanding and supportive husbands of the female journalists, even when it interferes with family life and weekends.
They take care of the baby and kids, so Kantor and Twohey can travel and follow up leads to get the job done, showing the changes in gender roles over this generation of parents.
She Said could have joined the plethora of documentaries on Netflix exposing the bad guys instead of being a film, but it’s still worth seeing.
By Paula Holland