Every couple of years a film involving persistent and plucky investigators comes out of Hollywood. We had Spotlight against the abuse in the Catholic Church, Blackwater against the contamination of private land in the South, The Post and it’s take on Watergate.
This year the target is close to Tinseltown’s heart in the form of Harvey Weinstein and his serial abuse of employees and actors as head of Miramax for 30 years. We follow the two New York times reporters who convinced a number of scared women to finally speak out later leading to 82 women accusing Weinstein of abuse. He is now serving a 23-year sentence. German director Maria Schrader leads a largely female team recreating the steps Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor took to break the story.
Carey Mulligan who is turning into a really interesting actress as she matures ably depicts Megan, the new mother complete with post-partum depression and Zoe Kazan has so much compassion in her look as Kantor.
We also get the great Patricia Clarkson as a NYT editor and André Braugher as the editor-in-chief. Ashley Judd reprises an episode from her own life in this and there are some excellent cameos from Weinstein victims played by Jennifer Ehle and especially Samantha Morton whose one scene is dynamite.
The story is largely chronological with a few brief flashbacks and there is a sense of matter-of-factness about the film. Although Nicholas Britell’s music has its moments of grandeur the overall effect is more like a documentary than a dramatic movie.
As one of the triggers for the rise of the #Me too movement this is an important and well-made movie especially in these days when abuses of power are being revealed and questioned the world over.
4 stars plus
passionfilm 