Movie Review: She Said (2022). In Theaters and on Peacock.

Last year I wrote a review of Catch and Kill, Ronan Farrow’s excellent non-fiction autobiographical thriller about his attempts to research and expose the stories of institutionalized sexual abuse by powerful men in major corporations, centered on NBC’s host Matt Lauer and the Miramax producer Harvey Weinstein. It’s a remarkable story, and an inspiring addition to the history of investigative journalism as an essential and difficult tool in the struggle for democracy and against abuses of power.

Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor were the two New York Times reporters also working the story of Harvey Weinstein, and his serial abuse of women employees and young actresses throughout his career as one of the most powerful figures in Hollywood, at the same time Farrow was trying to uncover the story for The New Yorker. 

After their sensational revelations in the pages of the New York Times, which ultimately led to Weinstein’s disgrace, his departure from Miramax and successful criminal prosecutions for rape, Twohey and Kantor also wrote a bestselling account of their work on the Weinstein story, She Said, which I haven’t read yet (but will).

In the meantime, though, I have seen the dramatic movie made from their book, which is an outstanding creative work in its own right, and a worthy entry on anyone’s “best investigative reporting stories” list of great films. 

As the story begins, we see how Weinstein first appeared on Kantor's radar, as a possible illustrative case of sexism in the workplace for an article she was researching on that topic. As she begins to follow leads, she hears harrowing accounts from several of Weinstein’s victims, but also runs into barriers, including the fact that most of the victims had received settlements, and had signed NDAs (non-disclosure agreements), which barred them from disclosing what had happened or talking to the media about their experiences.

We then see how Kantor (played by Zoe Kazan) recruits Twohey (Carey Mulligan) to work with her on the story, and how the two – with the careful and tough oversight of their editors and executives, and the everyday love and support of their husbands and young children, despite long hours at work and midnight phone calls – compile an exhaustive body of notes, anecdotes, sources, witnesses and documents, in order to write the story.

Much of the drama builds from watching the two of them arranging for and then conducting interviews with scared, reluctant sources in a variety of settings, as they try to understand the magnitude of Weinstein’s crimes, and the nature of the cover-up operations by the Miramax board of directors and Weinstein’s lawyers. It's also obvious that the fact that they are both career women and mothers of young daughters adds to the empathy and bond they are able to establish with many of the victims, as they try to gain their trust, learn their stories, and then ultimately try to get one or more of them to go on the record.

One of the most impressive features of the story (as in most investigative journalism tales) is the team’s high standards for the types of evidence they need in order to publish their findings. After all the recent years of constant attacks on the press for “fake news”, it is a revelation to watch what it takes to be able to publish a credible investigative report in the mainstream news media.

In the movie, it’s clear that the editors and writers automatically agree on the need for a high level of verifiability, because that’s their understanding of their jobs and the nature of their profession. There’s a reason that the New York Times is considered one of the most authoritative news sources in the world. But it’s also made clear that a story of this sort – about the crimes and misbehavior of a famous and powerful man – must be unimpeachable to withstand the sorts of attacks an influential man like Weinstein, and a wealthy company like Miramax, can unleash to protect themselves.

With all the social tumult of the last decade, it’s easy to see certain currents like the #METOO movement, which has had such an important role in uncovering institutionalized sexism and abuse in the workplace – as having arisen spontaneously. But it didn’t. The #METOO movement exploded as a direct result of the truths told by these few talented and dedicated writers and their editors, who were determined to get to the bottom of this ugly story, in order to shed light on institutional abuses of power, and by the brave women, some of them famous, who were ultimately convinced to make their own pain and victimization public in the hope of improving the lives of other women.

She Said is a gripping and intensely moving drama of two women investigative journalists working together on one of the most notorious and difficult real-life news stories of recent times. Highly recommended.