I don't think you're likely to find anyone not personally involved in this story to say that making this film was a bad idea. Obviously those at which it casts its stones are going to prefer that it remained ignored, but let's face it, that was never going to happen. This isn't the first attempt by an industry at highlighting events in order to get their own house in order, whilst hopefully affecting change in every other corner where abuse hides. The mode of its delivery, however, leaves something to be desired.
I imagine Mulligan assumed this would carry more weight, heaving it's gravitas like a trundling unstoppable behemoth towards a conclusion that we are are all already familiar with, so maybe less of a scoop and more of a re-rummage in the filth, a reminder of its existence that should never get old. In that regard, it probably doesn't do as much good as it should, largely because it has nothing new to say. The real question would have been if the same writers, director and stars would have put their careers on the line before and not after the tsunami had already passed.
"What she said," indeed. Not, "what I said", unfortunately.
Whilst the message is sound, the script suffers from a self-conscious seriousness way too concerned with not putting a foot wrong and comes across jilted and too stale for such dramatic, earth-shattering events. Our protagonists are too calm, whether by accident or design, and are often unbelievable for that reason. Add to this the decision to add real cameos of those involved, which may imply authenticity, but then use replacements for others is jarring and then the message and the audience immersion is lost.
The attempt at a group hug just isn't the same when one or more of your team just isn't touch-feely, so we're still left with the question of why everyone involved in raising such a scandal would not be involved in this too, which is a question we shouldn't be asking or considering when still being told to listen to the message.
This scores highly for good intention and average for pretty much everything else, from iffy scripting to sometimes quite jarring performances from our leads, which is a shame as they are quite capable of much better, realer things. By the time she arrived, a politely seething Samantha Morton was a breath of fresh, uncompromising air.
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