I understand why "She Said" didn't get more awards attention. It has excellent performances from Zoe Kazan, Carey Mulligan, Jennifer Ehle, and Samantha Morton, but those performances aren't very showy. Likewise, the film is a very restrained journalism procedural, about New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor (Kazan) and Meghan Twohey (Mulligan) breaking the story about Harvey Weinstein at the start of the #Metoo movement. It's very similar to Best Picture winner "Spotlight," with its grounded direction, strong ensemble, and focus on a group of dedicated reporters getting their jobs done. Ehle and Morton play two of Weinstein's former assistants who are identified as victims, and have to be convinced to go on the record.
Directed by Maria Schrader, who is making her English language film debut, "She Said" avoids sentiment and speechmaking in favor of the grim realities of sexual assault. We never see any of the violence, and only get glimpses of Weinstein from behind, or hear him over the phone. Instead, we're left with the dread and the shame and the uncertainty in the aftermath, which stays with the victims for decades. Navigating this emotionally charged territory requires persistence, but also empathy. It's significant that the two reporters are women, who both quietly navigate challenging personal lives while they're working on the story. Both of them are working mothers, and Twohey is recovering from postpartum depression. This isn't part of the story in any significant way, but rather simply the reality of the characters' lives.
However, like "The Post" a few years ago, "She Said" gives up too much narrative power by largely cutting its major antagonist out of the picture. I admire the impulse to keep the focus on the victims, and on the consequences of the crimes and cover-ups. However, this results in a film that is perhaps more staid and stripped down than it should be. Several actresses who were victimized by Weinstein make minor appearances in the film, and one significantly does not. You can see where the film's creators were struggling to address privacy concerns and keen on avoiding the sensationalism inherent in a story about Hollywood players. However, the pendulum may have swung too far in the opposite direction.
"Women Talking" is a significantly more successful attempt at talking about some of these issues through a more heavily fictionalized account of a real-life event. A remote Mennonite commune discovers that a group of men have been drugging and raping the women and girls over an extended period of time. The perpetrators have been arrested, and while the rest of the men are in town, trying to bail them out, the women are left with a few precious days to debate and vote over what to do - forgive the rapists, leave the commune, or stay and fight.
Written and directed by Sarah Polley, "Women Talking" is framed from the outset as a fantasy, an idealized version of an imagined debate among the women about addressing misogyny, covering a variety of different viewpoints and arguments. The women are uneducated, but they are intelligent, thoughtful, and well spoken. Multiple generations are represented, including two sets of adult women and their elderly mothers. The three main positions are represented by three major characters. Ona (Rooney Mara) is pregnant and wants to stay and fight, hopeful that the commune can change. Mariche (Jessie Buckley) is fearful of worse consequences, and wants to forgive the wrongdoers. Salome (Claire Foy), who has already resorted to violence, wants to leave. A lone man, August (Ben Whishaw) the schoolteacher, has been allowed to remain to record the proceedings.
Though adapted from a novel, "Women Talking" often feels like a stage play. The debate takes place over two days in a hayloft. The long conversations are broken up by occasional flashbacks and interludes, but the film's major dramatic moments are all built on the actresses interacting in a limited space. The cinematography is largely dim and dreary, despite the excellent production design. The performances, however, are all excellent. I want to single out Sheila McCarthy and Judith Ivey in particular, who play the older women, and provide a vital anchoring presence as tensions mount and everyone's emotions inevitably boil over.
This film has all the hallmarks of typical awards bait, but Polley engages so earnestly with the material, and the characters are portrayed with such care and empathy that I prefer to laud its ambitions instead of focusing on its flaws. The evenhanded treatment of so many thorny issues, including faith and community, set this apart from similar films of the post #Metoo era, and help it to feel more timeless. "Women Talking" is one of those films that doesn't get everything right, but is so unique that I'm very glad it exists.
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