Spotlight

Spotlight (2015)

96% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 259 reviews)

Runtime: 128 minutes

Directed by: Tom McCarthy

Starring: Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Brian d'Arcy James, Liev Schreiber

From: Open Road Films

This was the second film of the four I saw in a marathon yesterday. I heard a lot of strong things about it so even though I had never seen any of the director's work before (I know, an appalling thing to admit on a site such as this one; I can't explain the apparent misstep that was The Cobbler, as I understand the director is as much to blame for it as the atrocious Adam Sandler is) I was interested in hearing about the scandal in Boston where many members of the clergy in the Catholic Church were caught molesting children, and the Church covered it up so the shocking degree was not apparent to the public.

I enjoyed how the movie was laser-focused on the story of the small Spotlight crew for the Boston Globe newspaper (that crew spends months investigating important stories for the paper) is asked by their new editor to research the case of a priest who abused a child; as they delve deeper they realize not only that this has been a huge issue for years but that there were many people in the Church and outside of it who never hesitated to cover it all up; even the Boston Globe itself did not do as much as it could in the past, as some pieces were given to them and it took that long for them to start connecting the dots. Much of the film is just a few people talking to each other but that made it personal and as all the characters were interesting and it was an outstanding cast delivering spectacular performances, it was still thrilling to me as the plot escalated and the scope of what was suppressed was staggering.

I don't want it to sound like I am making a bad pun here by saying that each of the main actors gets the spotlight shone on them and no one dominates over anyone else, but it's true. From Michael Keaton, Liev Schreiber and John Slattery to Rachel McAdams, Brian d'Arcy James and Mark Ruffalo (his nomination for Best Supporting Actor was deserved), all are solid characters and you get to see all the nerve-wracking effects that this investigation has on them. From stress and being horrified by the magnitude of the cover-up (all of the Spotlight crew grew up as Catholic and one has a grandparent who goes to church several times a week) to the frightful realization for one of the reporters that an accused priest lived kitty-corner to him and his family, it took its toll on them. There were even arguments w/ each other over when and how to finally report this.

At the end of the movie, it was revealed just how many clergy members in the Boston area were accused over the years, and if that wasn't frightening enough, it then listed the number of cities all over the world where scandals happened after the Boston Globe story was first released. I won't begin to speculate or ponder how and why such things happen, as that's far beyond my skills and that will probably cause arguing and controversy. I will note that one scene had a former priest rationalizing his crimes and saying that he was raped himself as a child; that was alarming. So, I'll just say that this is an important story to, well, spotlight, and considering the revolting nature of the crimes, doing it this way and focusing on the reporters and how they react to an ever-growing situation, that seemed to be the most palatable way to cover this for general audiences. Behind the camera and in front of it, a lot of skill is on display when it came to bringing this to the silver screen.

Recently, I purchased the book Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church, a book from the Boston Globe which talks about this case. I waited until I saw the movie before I started reading this, which will come sometime in the future. The stories that the Boston Globe did not only exposed a hideous crime that had been going on for decades, but it also provided comfort for all the victims that were still alive at the time. I am glad the movie handled this delicate issue with a lot of care and respect that it deserved. It also spotlighted journalism in general and noted how it should still be important today. I hope it still is important; in this day of longform websites closing down in the past year because sites like Buzzfeed are much preferable to random online people... journalism that takes its time investigating such cases still needs to be a thing in this day and age.