In Palace Cinemas today!
(Reviewed by John Glennie)
The true story about sexual harassment in the workforce – in this case, it is the New York Times investigation into Miramax director Harvey Weinstein!
The movie starts with an actual recording from Donald Trump calling the paper and accusing them of lies and falsehood (in typical Trump style) in relation to reports of sexual misconduct. PF course, soon after that he was shockingly elected as President! Reporters Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) and Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) start delving into Hollywood amid some stories coming from actresses. The newspaper bosses are reluctant given that despite their investigation into Trump, he became leader of the nation.
Megan and Jodi are relentless and chase down former employees and actresses to find out the real story. However, finding any who are willing to go public is the biggest stumbling block, with all the women fearing the power this evil man had. Many had been “paid out” and had to sign confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements.
Having been a fan of Ashley Judd (Double Jeopardy), I was surprised to see her playing herself and being interviewed by one of the reporters. I had often wondered why she had suddenly disappeared off the acting scene – now I know! There are also many references to Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare In Love) throughout the movie.
It was quite evident that Weinstein was aware of many of the people the reporters were speaking to and some, who had said they would go public, suddenly changed their minds. The investigation takes the reporters to London, Wales and across the USA. OF course, this is one of those movies where we all know the outcome given that Weinstein is now serving a 23-year sentence. The story also helped launch the #MeToo movement and massive reforms in sexual harassment laws in the States (even though we have had them here for many years!).
My partner and I went to this movie premiere with high expectations due to some good score ratings. Because we all know the outcome, it took an awfully long time to get there – over 2 hours! Some scenes were really dragged out. Less then an hour into the movie a couple of people walked out and my partner whispered that they were doing what she wanted to do. Five minutes later she did get up and agreed to meet me in the foyer as she called it the most boring movie she had ever seen. I stuck it out to the end, but for the last half hour I kept checking my watch, thinking “surely it must end soon”. I too was quite bored by the time the already-known-ending finally came.
My partner said she would rate it 3 or, at the most, 4 – I was a bit more generous and would go 5 or 5.5!
No Comments