Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey’s 2017 Pulitzer Prize–successful exposé of the producer Harvey Weinstein was undeniably consequential. Their investigative reporting for The New York Times helped kick-start a cultural reckoning over sexual harassment and abuse throughout a variety of industries. In 2019, the duo chronicled their work within the e book She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement. They wrote about sifting by means of court docket settlements, nondisclosure agreements, and memos; agonizing over their wording in texts and emails to sources; and chasing, for 3 years, crumbs of data. The densely detailed narrative is riveting however inherently uncinematic.
Yet when it got here to adapting the fabric for the massive display screen, the director Maria Schrader and the screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz thought-about the meticulousness of Kantor and Twohey’s course of the purpose. Schrader knew the sheer quantity of dialogue they’d have to incorporate. “But I was never nervous about that,” the director advised me. “The more you learn about all these steps … the more you [realize that they were uncovering] a nightmare.” After all, Lenkiewicz advised me, their relentless reporting revealed the story’s sensitivity, which one of the best movies depicting journalism also needs to do. “It wasn’t just about the journalism,” she mentioned about Spotlight, one such film she admires. “It was about voices that are not heard.”
She Said, consequently, isn’t a triumphant movie in regards to the rise of the #MeToo motion, however moderately a clear-eyed, measured depiction of why that first article struck a nerve. Such a cool contact has made the film a tough promote to audiences, as final weekend’s paltry box-office earnings mirrored. Yet She Said is a worthwhile entry within the journalism-movie style. Kantor and Twohey’s thoroughness provided a mannequin not simply of journalism, however of compassion. Schrader and Lenkiewicz approached their adaptation the identical manner, monitoring the emotional actuality of the reporters’ experiences. The movie reveals how Jodi (performed by Zoe Kazan) and Megan (Carey Mulligan) went from collaborating as colleagues to relying on one another for help, and the way listening to about trauma repeatedly took a toll on each of them. She Said is anxious much less with reenacting Weinstein’s harassment and abuse than with exhibiting the worth of lively listening. Take away the entire headlines which have emerged round #MeToo, the movie urges, and the motion turns into a research of care. As Lenkiewicz put it, “Although there is such darkness in the story … there is a lot of beauty and light about women finding each other.”
To make that message clear, the film’s creators wanted to get the journalism proper. In one of many strongest scenes, Zelda Perkins (Samantha Morton), a former Miramax worker, meets with Jodi for an off-the-record dialog about why she left the corporate. But earlier than she tells her story, she explains the phrases of the NDA she signed. A lesser movie might need glossed over the finer factors or tried to amp up the stress with a showier efficiency. She Said, although, lets the scene run for almost 10 minutes. The NDA’s particulars are as vital as Zelda’s recollections of the office tradition; they illustrate how harshly Weinstein’s cohorts acted in response to her allegations. Schrader mentioned that she and Lenkiewicz prioritized precisely depicting the best way sources mentioned their experiences. They believed that these conversations warranted as a lot time on-screen as they did within the e book—that if these journalists paid such shut consideration to the context, so can the remainder of us.
She Said the e book incorporates its share of stunning materials. As an Oscar-winning mega-producer, Weinstein constructed an intensive community of highly effective folks, a few of whom helped the Times’ investigation and a few of whom hindered it. Kantor and Twohey describe buying a duplicate of a damning memo from a supply who went to the restroom whereas they had been assembly at a bar and intentionally left his telephone for Kantor to entry. The authors additionally recall getting panicked messages from Gwyneth Paltrow when Weinstein confirmed up at her Hamptons residence, and being focused by operatives from the Israeli intelligence agency Black Cube.
Any one among these moments might have been sensationalized, and the movie does permit for just a few theatrical prospers: A black SUV seems to crawl after Jodi as she leaves a restaurant, and Megan tells off a person who gained’t depart her and her feminine colleagues alone at a bar. But such scenes are temporary; Lenkiewicz advised me their intention was to underline the stress that got here with the investigation. “There’s been this wave of anti-journalism [sentiment] … You know, Can news be trusted? Is news valid?” Lenkiewicz mentioned. “I think it’s very important for people to know that there are journalists out there who are unstoppable in their seeking of the truth.”
The movie doesn’t simply re-create the journalists’ day-to-day life; it additionally captures the e book’s solemn and matter-of-fact tone. Lenkiewicz turned flurries of emails and texts into real looking, expanded conversations, illustrating how sources went from hesitating to trusting the reporters. Schrader, in the meantime, contrasted the cool, restrained pictures that accompanied survivors’ voice-overs—similar to that of an empty resort hallway—with the clamor contained in the Times places of work. In the newsroom, the fixed chatter between editors and writers is marked by an apparent, shared respect. The glimpses of Weinstein’s operation, nonetheless, are distressingly quiet—set in inappropriate areas, captured in montages of swiftly rearranged resort rooms, half-eaten meals, and deserted purses. The presentation of those totally different working environments is delicate, however intensely efficient.
The most vital transfer the movie makes can be its riskiest: She Said delves into the journalists’ residence lives, a component that doesn’t seem within the e book. The film depicts Megan dealing with postpartum despair and Jodi’s shock when her elder daughter first asks her in regards to the phrase rape. These sequences broaden our view of the journalists past their occupation, grounding them as characters themselves. That manner, Schrader mentioned, once they’re seated throughout from survivors, asking them questions, audiences aren’t simply watching an interview; they’re understanding how the duo linked with the ladies they met. Kantor and Twohey’s topics needed to keep off the report, which meant they couldn’t be quoted or have something they shared attributed to them. But they spoke anyway, as a result of they’d been ready for the correct particular person to hear. “It would be so much more narrow if we were just seeing two bigger-than-life heroines going after the villain,” Schrader defined. The actuality is “much more complex.”
She Said doesn’t finish with Weinstein’s arrest or with the collapse of his firm; it ends with the publishing of the exposé. Instead of fast-forwarding to a neat epilogue, the movie means that the #MeToo motion, at that time in 2017, confronted an unsure future. Five years after the occasions depicted, that continues to be the case. Yes, the reporting led to the producer’s conviction, in addition to numerous conversations about misogyny, abuse of energy, and the methods that defend perpetrators of sexual harassment—however different abusers have evaded penalty. Efforts to enact industry-wide options, similar to Time’s Up, have stalled, whereas questions linger over what accountability ought to appear to be, particularly for Hollywood’s most influential figures. The movie’s credit are a reminder of this truth: One of the manager producers, Brad Pitt, faces allegations of abuse from his ex-wife, Angelina Jolie. (Pitt’s lawyer launched a press release denying the allegations.) Schrader demurred from commenting on Pitt’s involvement, noting that she’s by no means met him. But she defined that she meant for the movie to “not shy away from the complexity and complicity and the question How much are you already involved?”
In different phrases, She Said will not be self-congratulatory; it’s a reminder that empathy can require immense effort, and that even then, such effort won’t result in sure success. In one of many movie’s most compelling scenes, Megan accepts a gathering with Weinstein and his coterie of attorneys; she wants to offer him a chance to reply so as to publish the piece. Team Weinstein is clearly riled up. As the digital camera zooms in on Megan’s face, the audio fades. Mulligan turns in a delicate efficiency as she sits reverse this human wall of deflection and denial. She appears to be like decided, then bemused, after which cautious. A flicker of resignation crosses her face, as she appears to comprehend that they care extra in regards to the well-being of the Weinstein Company than the well-being of the ladies who work there. There will at all times be folks on the opposite facet of the desk, the movie posits. But these value listening to are those who don’t have the ability to say a seat in any respect.