Stream It Or Skip It: ‘She Said’ on Peacock, a Journalism-Procedural About the Women Who Toppled Harvey Weinstein

She Said (now on Peacock) dramatizes many months in the lives of Jodi Kantor and Meghan Twohey, the New York Times journalists whose expose of Harvey Weinstein resulted in the famed movie producer and sexual predator’s being convicted and imprisoned for his numerous offenses. The journo-drama is based on the reporters’ book of the same name, adapted by screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz (Ida), directed by Maria Schrader (I’m Your Man and Netflix series Unorthodox) and starring Zoe Kazan and two-time Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan. Make no mistake – this is a prestige film, a BOATS (Based On A True Story) Oscar-baiter that underperformed at the box office ($11.8 million international gross) but will likely find a broader, more willing audience via at-home streaming – deservingly so.

SHE SAID: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Ireland, 1992: A young woman walks her dog through the woods and stumbles upon a movie set. She ends up working for the production – and soon thereafter, running through the street, weeping and disheveled. New York City, 2016: Megan Twohey (Mulligan) takes a phone call at home. It’s Donald Trump. He calls her “disgusting” for writing, and eventually publishing, a story about his alleged sexual misconduct. The evidence against him is strong – Twohey and her employer, The New York Times, wouldn’t publish if it wasn’t – but he gets elected President anyway. And now she’s pregnant, on the street by herself for a quick errand, when she fields another call – a death threat. The pursuit of truth is thankless and exhausting.

Months go by. Megan struggles with postpartum depression. Her Times colleague, Jodi Kantor (Kazan), gets a tip that movie star Rose McGowan is writing an autobiography in which she alleges she was raped by Harvey Weinstein, the head of film studio Miramax. Times editors Rebecca Corbett (Patricia Clarkson) and Dean Baquet (Andre Braugher) pair Jodi and Megan for the story. They talk to actress Ashley Judd (playing herself), who shares that Weinstein harassed her and subsequently tried to derail her career. The learn of another woman attacked by Weinstein, and another, and another. They run headlong into non-disclosure agreements attached to legal settlements. Two women are key: Zelda Perkins (Samantha Morton), who’s willing to turn over documents. Another is the girl from Ireland, Laura Madden (Jennifer Ehle), who didn’t sign an NDA – but has cancer and is about to have a mastectomy. They knock on the door of a former Miramax CFO and ask him about the settlements, and his wife interjects: “What payouts?”

Megan and Jodi’s phones never stop ringing. They interview sources while breastfeeding and packing lunches, while picnicking and walking through the park with their families. Their work is not a walk in the park. They have to get everything right. People on the record. Evidence and documentation. All the ducks in a row. They work and work and work. They lose sleep, and not just when they’re answering calls during the wee hours. Meghan’s simmering anger and frustration sometimes seep out. Jodi has a conversation with her young daughter about the word “rape” – and weeps into her hands after it’s over. Are they ready to publish yet? No. Are they ready to publish yet? No. Are they ready to publish yet? No. Are they ready to publish yet? Maybe. Are they ready to publish yet? Yes.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: She Said is very much a journo-procedural, preceded by Nixon-takedown drama All the President’s Men (best picture Oscar nominee) and Catholic-church-abuse-scandal drama Spotlight (best picture Oscar winner).

Performance Worth Watching: Kazan has moments of considerable empathy and vulnerability, and Mulligan gives a strong nonverbal performance as a woman near what appears to be potentially debilitating depression. But the strongest work here is by Ehle, who only appears in a handful of scenes, but delivers an emotionally generous and memorable representation of the women Weinstein terrorized.

Memorable Dialogue: Weinstein shows up unannounced at the Times office. Meghan: “Let him in. I’ve got this.”

Sex and Skin: None, but the dialogue frequently includes frank discussion of sexual assault.

Our Take: There’s nothing showy about She Said – no obvious dramatic contrivances, no grandstanding Oscar clips, no flashy cinematography, no self-aggrandizement of the journalism profession. It simply reaffirms the status of the Fourth Estate as a cornerstone of American justice, and does so quietly and assertively. Schrader for the most part gets out of the way and lets the story tell itself, in a simple, straightforward fashion. The women in this film simply get things done, driven by an understated, but undeniably feminist urgency.

This isn’t a taut, suspenseful film, but it’s nevertheless gripping and watchable, with enough emotional fodder to keep our hearts engaged without manipulating us, but not so much that it gets in the way of the nuts-and-bolts narrative style of a classic procedural. It certainly seems crafted in the spirit of shoe-leather journalism, Schrader stopping just shy of presenting it in the black-and-white of good old-fashioned newsprint – this isn’t a throwback film, but one distinctly rooted in the internet age. Sometimes, the dialogue is blocky and on-the-nose – “This is bigger than Weinstein. This is about the system protecting abusers,” Morton’s Zelda defiantly states – but we’re more apt to forgive that in the absence of self-righteous back-patting.

Kazan and Mulligan make a strong on-screen pair, the former with her open earnestness and the latter with soulful determination. Their characters understand the gravity of the situation, but maintain their focus on checking the last fact and acquiring the next one. One by one, one after the other, one step at a time. It’s meticulous, demanding work, cold-calling people who don’t want to hear from them, taking notes, banging out emails – and perhaps most importantly, finding a way to ask women difficult questions while also expressing empathy. Do Meghan and Jodi understand that their story is going to be the fulcrum of a global cultural movement? I don’t know, maybe. One thing’s for certain: Men couldn’t have done this work.

Our Call: STREAM IT. She Said is a worthy, sturdy, rock-solid BOATS drama.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com.