In 2002, the Boston Globe ran a feature piece on the Catholic Church within Boston, uncovering that there had been an unreal amount of priests that had been molesting children and getting away with it. What this story did was create a domino effect that resulted in numerous parishes all over North America being uncovered as having similar atrocities happening and being swept under the rug. But how, exactly, did all the information about the molestation's get withheld for so long? And how did all the information finally see the light of day? That is what Spotlight, the latest film from Tom McCarthy, aims to uncover.
Robby Robinson (Michael Keaton) runs a section of the Boston Globe, known as Spotlight, which is a team of reports that will work together to write a single story, but that could take months to properly investigate and gather all the information. Robby's team consists of Mike Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Sacha Pfieffer (Rachel McAdams), and Matt Carroll (Brian d'Arcy James), and his supervisor Ben Bradlee Jr. (John Slattery). When the Globe gets a new Chief Editor named Marty Baron (Liev Schrieber), who urges the Spotlight team to look into the story of a priest being accused of molestation, the investigation unravels to show this cover up runs very deep.
The entire ensemble of Spotlight is fantastic. While most of the praise and awards will be in the direction of Keaton and Ruffalo, and deservedly so, the work done by the whole cast helps to elevate this film. McAdams, d'Arcy James, Slattery and Schrieber are all fantastic in supporting roles of varying lengths. As are Stanley Tucci, as a lawyer handling the molestation cases, and Billy Crudup, as a lawyer who has previously dealt with molestation cases. All the characters in the film feel like three dimensional people as opposed to characters presented in a film to advance the plot. They have interests and motivations and feel like people you would actually meet. You see them come to terms with the fact that these molestation's hit a lot closer to home than they knew, and how that shapes how they approach the investigation.
Tom McCarthy is a very interesting filmmaker to me, because he's made some underrated gems (Win Win, The Visitor, The Station Agent), and one truly awful film (The Cobbler). Typically, however, his films were small scale about the individuals in the film and how they deal with their circumstances, and I feel like that approach in his previous films lends itself perfectly here. We spend time with the Spotlight team and see how they investigate and uncover the facts in their story, and how it changes how they view things within their lives. McCarthy shoots the entire film with a subtly that never pushes you to conclusions or realizations before the characters themselves have experienced them. His ability to set the pace and let the reveals come to you is a big part of why the film works so well, and why he should be seeing his name come awards time.
The script from McCarthy and Josh Singer is smart, heartbreaking, and, often times, humourous. Despite the tragic events that the film talks about, the injection of humour really helps to alleviate the tension and nauseau you feel when you find out the things these poor children go through. Adding to this, the score by Howard Shore and the cinematography Masanobu Takayanagi are great, never trying to outdo the events being portrayed on screen.
What Spotlight does so well is it draws you into its world, where the idea that a representative of God could not do something so horrifying, especially to defenseless children. It makes you come to terms with the fact that this is a real problem, and that those directed effected by this are still dealing with the actions of these priests till this day. By the time you are able to fully comprehend what you are learning, you'll be left with a knot in your stomach and a lump in your throat. Spotlight is a remarkable film about truly heartbreaking events.
Grade: A
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