No doubt you think Harvey Weinstein is a reprehensible human being. What this movie brings home is the sheer scope of the institutionalized protection that enabled his horrible behaviour for 30 years. This is a biographical drama movie based on the book of the same name by reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey.

Carey Mulligan is Twohey and Zoe Kazan is Kantor, the New York Times reporters who eventually broke the Weinstein story. Both are shown as recent mothers, struggling to balance family and work. Their investigation starts with Rose McGowan (voiced by Keilly McQuail, we never see her). McGowan - as many will remember - was the woman who made public the story of her sexual assault by Harvey Weinstein. An act for which she was attacked and discredited. Twohey and Kantor pursue the story, following leads even to other continents, dig into multiple non-disclosure agreements and settlements. The story focuses mostly on the women and their stories, rather than on Weinstein. Somebody plays the back of Weinstein's head for about a minute near the end of the movie.

A comparison to "Spotlight" sprang to mind immediately. The comparison is hard to avoid: both are about real, long-term newspaper investigations into massive cover-ups of sexual assault. "Spotlight" is about multiple Catholic priests, This movie is about a single man. Both reached back decades. This movie suffers in comparison, but I think "Spotlight" is one of the greatest movies ever made. This is nevertheless a very good (and important) movie. (Also in this genre of long newspaper stories is "The Post," which I haven't seen.)