‘spotlight’ Shines ; Mark Ruffalo Calls on Vatican to “heal Wounds” with Film – Venice

By Nancy Tartaglione
The Deadline
September 3, 2015

http://deadline.com/2015/09/spotlight-venice-mark-ruffalo-vatican-pope-1201513647/


In what’s been the warmest reception I’ve seen for a film this year in Venice, Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight hit the Lido today, bringing awards buzz, and leaving the press corps exclaiming ‘Bellissima!’. Given this is a film whose subjects the audience knows a thing or two about — journalism and the Catholic church — the sustained press screening applause sounded a ringing endorsement for the out-of-competition title. Afterwards, McCarthy and stars Mark Ruffalo and Stanley Tucci said they hoped Pope Francis would get to see the film that traces the Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe investigation into a sex abuse and corruption scandal which rocked a city, and one of the world’s oldest and most trusted institutions.

Saying he was speaking on behalf of the real-life characters, the cast and victims, Ruffalo expressed they were all “hoping that the pope and the Vatican use this very, very sober and judicious story to begin to heal the wounds that the church also received.” Spotlight is “a perfect opportunity” for the Vatican “to begin to right these wrongs, not just for the victims and their destroyed lives, but for all the people who’ve lost a way to order a chaotic world for themselves.”

Set in 2001, the movie follows the dedicated members of the Globe‘s Spotlight news team as they delve into allegations of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, ultimately exposing a decades-long cover-up at the highest levels of Boston’s religious, legal, and government establishment, and setting off a wave of revelations around the world. Ruffalo plays lead writer Mike Rezendes and Tucci is victims’ attorney Mitch Garabedian. Also starring are Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, Brian d’Arcy James and John Slattery.