UNITED STATES
WNYT
By Craig Thornton
Story Published: Jan 3, 2016
It’s hard to see the movie Spotlight, unaware of the great critical acclaim it has received (even if you have managed to dodge reading the raves). The positive swell continues and it is now considered the favorite for the best picture Oscar. A film’s power and effectiveness is often measured by its resonance after you have seen it. Do you think about it hours later, days later, even weeks later? The fact that Spotlight is so low-key and it has such tremendous resonance is one reason why it’s getting great buzz. Devoid of cinematic flashy devices or gimmicks or over the top performances, the film harnesses its power from its seeming simplicity.
In 2001, the Boston Globe gets a new editor in chief, Marty Baron (Leiv Schreiber) and he assigns a group of investigative reports nicknamed spotlight to investigate a nearly forgotten case of priest child sexual abuse that was only cursorily written about. The team of four is headed by Walter Robby Robinson (Michael Keaton) and includes Sasha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams), Matt Carroll (Brian d’Arcy James) and Mark Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo). As this team begins to uncover and discover the scope of the Catholic Diocese sexual abuse and cover-up their investment in finding out the truth increases. So does their shock and disbelief. Films usually work best with a central protagonist, but in Spotlight there is an ensemble and it works to its advantage. As each reporter is affected by the magnitude and disgust of their discoveries, so are we, as the audience. This “outside looking in” approach as more and more facts are slowly revealed underscores the outrage that society feels about this infamous page in Catholicism and the Boston legal system in history.
Director and co-writer Tom McCarthy (co-written with Josh Singer) have constructed an engrossing, detailed, controlled story that never overplays its hand or dips into melodrama or didactic grandstanding. Faced with an overwhelming responsibility to the journalists, victims and to their audience to entertain and illuminate the ghastly depravity of the institution of Catholicism that allowed the abuse; the filmmakers succeed without a graphic reenactment of the abuse or overly salacious details purposely designed to shock.
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