She Said: Maria Schrader's stunning revisitation into the Harvey Weinstein expose is a masterpiece on the MeToo movement
She Said: Maria Schrader's stunning revisitation into the Harvey Weinstein expose is a masterpiece on the MeToo movement
Any shred of sympathy that you may harbour for Harvey Weinstein—and I confess after hearing about how he was dying in prison, I did feel a little sorry for the monster—is effectually and tellingly erased by She Said, Maria Schrader’s stunning revisitation into the Weinstein expose.
After the very disappointing Bombshell recreating the movement that took down the CNN boss Roger Aisles, I had become wary of all MeToo films.
Wary no more! She Said digs into the probe against Harvey Weinstein. And comes up, as expected, with filth and dirt. The initial probe was undertaken by two doughty journalists from New York Times- Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. They are played with a refreshing absence of self-congratulations by Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan. I rate these two actresses as among the most vital acting talent in America’s contemporary cinema.
In She Said, they play super-heroes without caps and italics. Throughout, there is an eminently likeable spirit of a job being done, no matter how dirty. I would like to think that journalists would love Mulligan and Kazan’s combined expose more than others. But that won’t be the truth. She Said is compelling to anyone who has conscience. And to anyone who has ever been compromised by a power-hungry creep.
How could this movie-making monster get away with harassing and abusing so many women for so long? This question has never seemed more pertinent as our two investigative journalists travel far and wide, bringing to the table that heroic feeling of Kane & Abel.
I like how director Marie Schrader (herself an actress of great repute) brings in the home life of Kantor and Twohey without making them look like martyrs and saints. Sure, it’s a tough life exposing someone as powerful as Harvey Weinstein. Kanor and Twohey are relentless. They nail the wrongdoer so deftly it seems like a triumph for all humanity
She Said is a great film, as it doesn’t aspire to greatness. There is a story to tell. And the film does it with the least amount of hullabaloo. I love the matter-of-fact tone and the brusque manner in which the two journalists go about the business of meeting the wronged women. Many of these episodes remain traumatic to us, for the sheer enormity of the crime.
Schrader’s film plunges into Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s excellent screenplay, looking not for smut but the truth. If She Said is such a great film it is for its ability to create a balance between the truth and the lies without taking sides.
Some of the real-life victims are here. One episode with Ashley Judd playing herself would give you goosebumps: she makes the horror of the assault seem like it’s happening in front of our eyes. For reasons best known to the screenwriter one of the assaulted women Laura Madden(played with poignant rage by Jennifer Ehle) is given a pivotal peg in the plot .Laura’s journey from innocence to assault is heartbreaking.
So glad Weinstein is where he belongs. But what about the Harvey Weinsteins of Bollywood who are strutting around fearlessly?
Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.
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