Spotlight

A captivating story recounting the endeavours of the Boston Globe journalists responsible for exposing the system of child abuse perpetrated by the Catholic Church.

Tom McCarthy and Jason Singer’s procedural drama, propelled by a stellar cast, is superb at reproducing the processes of journalism; the scouring through old clippings, the knocking on doors, the hopeful telephone calls. With the greatest fidelity, Spotlight recreates the joining together of dots on a page, which outlines the work of investigative journalists, in an attempt to reveal the bigger picture.

Spotlight begins with the arrival of Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber), the new head of the Boston Globe, who assigns a team of investigative reporters, named “Spotlight”, the job of uncovering the truth behind a string of child molestations by Catholic priests in the Boston area. The Spotlight team is headed by editor Walter “Robby” Robinson (Michael Keaton), and includes Sasha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams), Mike Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), and Matt Carroll (Brian d’Arcy James), as they chase down leads and interview victims, while collaborating with lawyer Mitchell Garabedian (Stanley Tucci) to try to acquire the release of incriminating documents from the Boston Archdiocese.

The grimness of the subject matter is enough to induce shivers before you are even reminded of the true story behind the film. This is a dark story indeed, reflected in the visuals on screen. As Pfeiffer and Carroll, roam Boston neighbourhoods, knocking on doors trying to get information, there is always a church spire nearby, looming over the houses, providing perfect symbolism of an institution’s control over a community, and a reminder of the history of abuse that hangs over the city – long ignored, like nobody wanted to find out. Tucci’s Garabedian sums it up – “if it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one.” It takes Garabedian and Baron, two outsiders, to really start uncovering the truth, as the attitude of the Boston community is reflected in the character of editor Ben Bradlee Jr. (John Slattery), whose disbelief and reluctance to see the scandal as credible can be generalised to the city at large.

Mark Ruffalo is the clear standout performance here, as well as an understated turn by Liev Schreiber, but that doesn’t do justice to the efforts of the cast as a whole. Spotlight is itself an ensemble movie, but it doesn’t feel like it. The film as a whole plays out in perfect synchronicity. Michael Keaton continues his resurgence here, and Stanley Tucci, as you’d expect, is again his brilliant self, while McAdams, James, and Slattery complete the cycle of excellent performances on show.

Spotlight, steadied by a watertight script, plays out brilliantly. It’s understated, there are no remarkable set pieces and for the most part the camera stays perfectly still, McCarthy only moves it when he needs to. It is the kind of film that consists mostly of characters scratching their heads over coffee, within the white walls of municipal-looking buildings – and that’s all it needs to be, the dialogue takes over, with the white painted walls providing a canvas for the actors to perform.

Written by Callum Mackenzie