SPOTLIGHT (8 out of 10) Written and directed by Tom McCarthy; Starring Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Brian d’Arcy James, Stanley Tucci; Rated R for “some language including sexual references”; Running time 128 minutes; In limited release November 6, 2015.
Spotlight is the story of the investigative journalist team at the Boston Globe who uncovered the sex abuse scandal in Boston and elsewhere. It’s harrowing, intense, and likely to pick up more than a few Oscar nominations. While riveting, it is also hard to watch. There is an intense dread as they uncover this story and see how far down the rabbit hole goes, and even worse is when some of them found they ignored earlier warning signs and stories, helping become part of the cover-up they are trying to unwrap.
Our film starts in 2001. George W. Bush has just taken office. The newspaper industry is just starting to feel the bite of the internet. And so a new editor, played by Liev Shrieber, comes in to try to right the ship. He take an interest in Spotlight, the investigative column led by Michael Keaton and his team of reporters — Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Brian d’Arcy James — and encourages them to look into some of these allegations about priest abuse. A local crank attorney, played to perfection by Stanley Tucci, is trying to organize victims and get settlements for them.
But Boston is a company town, and you don’t take on the Catholic Diocese without something strong. So they start digging. And just as they start getting somewhere. . . 9/11 happens.
Eventually getting back to the story, they all struggle with their own demons. Several as lapsed Catholics want to go after the church for all the injustices they see, while others take a more nuanced approach. It’s an interesting exploration of how faith, culture, socio-economic class, and even what neighborhood you grew up in determine so much of life in Boston.
The performances here are exquisite. Already mentioning Tucci, both McAdams and Ruffalo should be pushing for Best Supporting nominations. Both Schiever and Slattery put in some of their best performances ever. But it is Michael Keaton who dominates, as he continues his renaissance, delivering a very measured and heartfelt performance. He has a very quiet Schindler’s List type moment near the end as his conscience plagues him of if he could’ve done more, sooner to stop the abuse decades ago.
And the ending is stunning.
The only caution is that this subject matter is very tough to deal with. Consider this a huge trigger warning for all victims of sexual abuse, or anyone with delicate sensibilities, as this film asks victims to describe in graphic detail exactly what the priests did to them and forced them to do to them. But just as the characters say in the film, it’s difficult to talk about, but necessary so we can learn the truth.
Last week’s film “Truth” landed with a thud as a display of modern journalism and what happens when you don’t do things right. “Spotlight” is the counter-example: what happens when you take the time to verify, back up your sources, and get the story right. Truth got everything wrong that Spotlight got right. It’s also a swan song to the legacy of hard investigative journalism that newspapers used to be capable of. In today’s society, we’d be so lucky to get anything near this.
Go check out Spotlight. It’s worth your time, and extremely compelling, even though it’s sometimes hard to hear. Truth hurts.
8 out of 10