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It’s disheartening to give a film like She Said a negative rating, even if it’s honest - this is something that affected real women, and resulted from a corrupt and abusive system in Hollywood (and everywhere else) that still exists today. I’m glad it was made. But there was still a conscious decision not to make a documentary here, and in a genre that champions the likes of Spotlight it is hard not to feel underwhelmed by She Said’s weak screenplay. It is most evocative when victims are telling their stories directly, being appropriately blunt about the atrocity of what Weinstein did (you can’t take your eyes off Samantha Morton). Otherwise, it fails to tie all of its ideas together into a cohesive point about womanhood and the system that upheld Weinstein in the first place, instead opting for a by-the-numbers investigation that is grasping for nuance but comes up empty handed. The cast is good, but not given the space to truly shine (Carey Mulligan comes closest, and her partnership with Zoe Kazan is charming). The blend of real life and its fictionalized representation here is also anything but seamless and often even distracting. Harvey Weinstein is shown but you don’t see his face, Ashley Judd plays herself. These uneven aspects clash hard with the seriousness of the subject matter. Again, this is why I think topics that are so current and/or involve such high profile characters are sometimes better left as documentaries, even if Maria Schrader creates some powerful moments. Such an important story deserves a better film. But alas. I’m sure we can all agree on being glad that scumbag is in jail.
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