“Knowledge is one thing but faith, faith is another.”
There is nothing extraordinary about Spotlight, yet there is something incredible in the way it falls into place.
This is a movie that is clearly much more than the sum of its parts.
Said parts and exactly bad, the acting is solidly great all-round, the direction is good and the writing is excellent, but together it makes for an engrossing, tense film.
Centered around the investigation made by the Spotlight team at the Boston Globe into the cover up of children molestation within the Catholic Church, Spotlight builds and builds.
The team, Mike Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams), Matt Carrol (Brian d’Arcy James) and their editor/team leader ‘Robby’ Robinson (Michael Keaton) are put onto the case by new paper editor Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber).
It’s slow moving plot, but like a good puzzle, the pieces begin to fall together as more evidence is collected and more sources are revealed.
Two lawyers, Mitchell Garabedian (Stanley Tucci) and Eric Macleish (Billy Crudup) provide intermittent help, but it’s when the victims speak that Spotlight really begins to move.
Three in particular, Joe Crowley (Michael Cyril Creighton), Patrick McSorely (Jimmy LeBlanc) and Phil Saviano (Neal Huff) for the reporters and the movie into gear and from their interviews, Spotlight begins it’s battle to convey the truth.
Each new revelation brings with it anger and confusion and the script from Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer does a great job of providing enough difficulty to keep the investigation difficult and keeping each reveal different and not letting them slip into a list of facts.
Spotlight gathers a string of chill-inducing moments and lines them up into a terrific, memorable film.
There is nothing flashy here, just a painstaking retelling of a harrowing story and how it was written.
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Direction/cinematography
McCarthy, who was best known to me as the slimy reporter from the final season of The Wire, doesn’t do anything spectacular behind the camera here.
He adopts a fly on the wall style during scenes within the Boston Globe offices, but during outside scenes McCarthy works hard to employ wide lenses to pick up the Boston scenery.
This is particularly notable during one particular montage as reporters knock on doors, with Boston’s intimidating cathedrals looming in the background.
This speaks of some hard from from Masanobu Takayanagi as the cinematographer, scouting some crucial locations to make ensure this is a story about Boston and its deep connection to the church.
1.5/2
Writing
Movies about newspaper reporting have to be well written to have any credibility and Spotlight is excellent in this regard.
Seemingly every scene includes a memorable line: “How do you say no to God, right?”; “If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one.”; “It’s like everybody knows the story…” “Yeah, except us.”.
The pacing invokes David Fincher’s great Zodiac in it’s unraveling, slow burning style.
There are enough sprinklings of humour to keep it from drawing yawns, with Keaton’s Robinson adding wit often to a dire scenario.
One scene where Rezendes explodes in rage seems like an unnecessary addition, and an extra dive into the villains of the story would have been nice, but this script is truly excellent.
2/2
Acting
Ruffalo stands out as Rezendes, bringing a specific physicality to his role that helps create his character.
The real people depicted in the film were around set often, and their opinions of the portrayals have been almost universally positive, in particular Keaton’s father figure as Robinson.
Tucci is excellent as a dismissive lawyer who has been put through the ringer of constant victims without justice and Len Cariou does a great job as the cardinal who is at all times both threatening and warm.
Spotlight took out the SAG Award for best ensemble and that was due to an even and terrific portrayal.
2/2
Re-watchability
The subject matter isn’t all the fun, but the sprinklings of key moments means Spotlight is worth revisiting.
It’s one of those movies that ends with goosebumps and it takes a couple of minutes for you to stand up and go to the toilet because there is so much to process.
Some sections may be worth fast forwarding through, notably a 9/11 hold off, but Spotlight is worth taking in multiple times.
1.6/2
Zeitgeist
Spotlight immediately joins Frost/Nixon, Zodiac, Good Night and Good Luck and Anchorman as the top films about journalism in this century.
For that, it earns a place in the realms of popular culture.
It is also among the front runners for Best Picture at the Oscars at the time of writing and a win there will obviously catapult it from a lesser seen film to a must watch.
But it is a lesser seen film without any legitimate movie superstars in front or behind the camera, so without a win it could quickly be forgotten by the masses.
1.4/2
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