by Frank Calvillo
There are certain films with subject matters so numbing and disturbing, that they’re simply too hard to watch. This could have definitely been the case with Spotlight, which takes a look at how a team of journalists uncovered one of the most horrific and long-lasting scandals of all time.
Fortunately though, the makers of Spotlight have taken one of the most unsettling real-life subjects and turned it into one of the best films of the year.
Co-written and directed by Tom McCarthy, Spotlight is the true retelling of The Boston Globe’s monumental uncovering of the molestation scandal within the local catholic church. The “spotlight” of the title refers to a special team of reporters– Walter “Robby” Robinson (Michael Keaton,) Mike Rezendez (Mark Ruffalo,) Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams) and Matt Carroll (Brian d’Arcy James)– who specialize in long-term investigations of huge news stories. When the paper’s new editor Marty Baron (Liev Schrieber) decides the team should investigate allegations of past child molestation cases within the local church, the team bring to light one of the most earth-shattering news stories ever told.
Most films dealing with journalism are going to be put under a more probing microscope than other films simply because a wide array of the field has been shown throughout cinematic history. When a movie doesn’t portray the profession in an accurate manner, it immediately gets called out. Thankfully with Spotlight, this is far from the case. This is a film which so excellently depicts not only the world of the journalist, but the mentality as well. As each member of spotlight gets deeper into his or her investigation, it becomes increasingly fascinating to watch how the case begins to affect them. Additionally, the great attention to detail with regards to dates, times, names and places are carefully researched and help to place Spotlight in the same league as All the President’s Men and Absence of Malice.
Like most fact-based dramas, Spotlight does contain a dry moment here and there. Yet they’re few and far between a bevy of well-executed and compelling scenes which have the power to literally shock and awe. Such moments, including Carroll discovering that two of the priests the team are investigating live in his neighborhood and Pfeiffer encountering a former priest who freely, and rather casually, admits to molesting children, happen with such stark force, that audience never has to worry about being overwhelmed by facts.
By far the trickiest aspect of Spotlight is wondering just how filmmakers planned to handle the faith/religious aspects of the real-life story. McCarthy and co-writer Josh Singer approached this in the best possible way by showing how the various truths uncovered by the team changed the way they looked at the church, rather than the faith. Examples include Pfeiffer’s wrestling to carry on with her job while still attending mass every week with her grandmother and a poignant moment featuring Rezendez stopping by a church during midnight mass and painfully looking on as a choir of children sing “Silent Night.”
As gripping as the subject matter and screenplay are, the acting across the board is also the reason Spotlight works as well as it does. In Robinson, Keaton has found a perfect follow up to his triumph in last year’s Birdman. His turn here affords him the chance to once again remind everyone how deeply committed of an actor he is. He’s matched well with Ruffalo as Rezendez, who does a stellar job of showing just how much the darkness of the subject matter has begun to tear away at him. A confrontational scene in the newsroom where he powerfully shouts: “They knew and they let it happen! It could have been me, it could have been you, it could have been any of us,” is hands down one of the film’s best.
Meanwhile, McAdams’ conflicted reporter, Schrieber’s hard to read Editor-in-Chief, d’Arcy James’ tense journalist and Stanley Tucci’s steely lawyer all give the actors great material to work with and help to make the cast of Spotlight one of the best ensembles of the year.
It’s tough to describe the feeling an audience member is left with once Spotlight reaches its closing credits, which begins by citing the many cases that have been uncovered around the world since the story broke in early 2002.
On the one hand, there is a feeling of great disenchantment and grief at the thought of how incredibly widespread such abuse was and the how it permanently altered the view of such a sacred institution for so many people. On the other, there is something of a satisfaction that such an important story has been visualized through an exemplary piece of filmmaking which, though harsh, should be lauded for its richness in dialogue, incredible acting and unflinching devotion to its subject.
