This may be the most unqualified review of a movie anyone has ever given. I am not a woman, reporter, victim or assailant. This movie was a glossy but harrowing look into the New York Times article that broke the story of Harvey Weinstien’s sexual abuse throughout the film world and started the Me Too movement. Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey published the article in 2016, which opened the door to show the absolute horror going on behind the scenes, not only from Harvey, but from countless other men in power. Not sure about you but I haven’t seen any women in power pull half of the shit these men did and thought they could get away with. I was going to say I cannot imagine feeling that level of untouchableness but I do feel that way every single time the Mario Kart lights go out and those other drivers fade into the distance behind me.
This movie wasn’t presented in any kind of interesting or notable way. It was shot like an average episode of NCIS, we could see what was on screen, but I wasn’t oo-ing and aw-ing at the visuals. The sound was noticeably terrible at times, in a way that made me question if it was intentional. The cleanest footsteps would walk past as if the waitress in the London cafe was wearing tap shoes. This clip clopping going on while Jodi spoke to the woman giving her the hard evidence in the Miramax documents. In a more arthouse film, I would assume this was to drown out the women talking a little bit, making them seem quieter than the world around them, in this, I feel like it may have been a shortcut in production. Although the sound may have been lacking, the music trickled its way through the film with a Netflix Docuseries level of dramatics. It was plink plonking on the piano keys at the beginning, which grew towards the end, being joined by strings and wind to close out the film. The soundtrack had a level of triumph that built up to the final frame of the film where see the publish button clicked.
The story is a classic, journalists pushing through the hard times to write the world changing story to truly change the world as we know it, a story we all love. It was like a Mario Bros game, going from level to level, same thing, new location, until we get to Harvey’s castle at the end of the movie where he falls into the lava while we rejoice that his reign of terror is over, that is, until one of his demonic reptile children come along to repeat the cycle of power. As an update, Mario reference counter is firmly set at two for a movie that could not be more tonally different, that calls for celebration, joy and merriment I say.
We start as Megan has just written an article about Trump and his run-ins with the lack of consent. This article, however, gets no traction whatsoever, so Megan decides to have a child, bringing someone up in a world that she seems to have lost hope in. Jodi hasn’t lost hope, she begins working on the Harvey Weisnstein piece that she knows could end up with the same fate as Megan’s Trump write-up. Yet, she pushes on, soon joined by Megan after her parental babysitting hiatus. They split the work evenly, Megan hits hard and has no fear about asking questions to anyone. Jodi is slightly more reserved and seems to take on the emotional role in this story, she interviews the victims of Harvey’s abuse and gets their perspective in a respectful and caring manner each time.
The film handles each story with respect and delicacy. From my perspective, it does each one justice by making me feel like each woman is a person and not just plot devices. They give backstory to each of them, family lives and outside attributes, more than just being a victim. Laura, in particular, is a story that I felt for. She stumbled into the industry, at a time when you could do that. She was full of excitement and wonder, we then see it all fade away in one shot of her running away and crying. We can fill in the gaps based on the rest of the movie and what she has told us through conversations.
The movie relies mostly on conversations in order to tell the story, as I said, it doesn’t lean on the visuals at all. It's a good thing that they were mostly well written, realistic and interesting though. Some stories were difficult to hear, knowing that it wasn’t just written down on a page, but taken from real women’s accounts of their abuse.
Well, like Harvey’s career, we’ve reached the end. This film isn’t for me, it isn’t for anyone today. We remember the story, we know what happened because we’re still living in the immediate aftermath. This movie is for future generations, ones who won’t know the details as they get lost in time. This movie is important for that, it’s a reminder of what we let the world get to, and why we have to keep holding these people accountable so we don’t get back there again .
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