[yasr_overall_rating]
The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.
Powerful and affecting, “Spotlight” is perhaps the most important film of the year. Tom McCarthy, a notable actor whose best known as a director for his work on “The Station Agent,” brings the story of how “The Boston Globe” broke the story of widespread priestly child abuse within the Boston Catholic Archdiocese. However difficult this story is to watch, as we see, it is infinitely more difficult to tell.
The film opens as the Boston police, in the 1950s, works with the Archdiocese to get a priest (hinted to possibly be Cardinal Law, later played by Len Cariou) who has been accused of unspeakable crimes released from jail. Flash forward to 2001, and “The Boston Globe” gains a new editor in Marty Baron (Liev Schrieber), who touches base with a highly specialized group of reporters called “Spotlight,” and made up of managing editor “Robby” Robinson (Michael Keaton), Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams), Matt Carroll (Brian D’Arcy Adams), and Mike Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo). At first, Baron looks at “Spotlight” as a possible way to cut costs for the paper. Then the Catholic abuse story begins to coalesce.
Resistance comes from every corner. In one scene, Cardinal Law gives the Book of the Catechism to Baron, who is Jewish. As the reporters comb their lists of priests and possible victims, all they seem to find are doors slammed shut, even in one case where a guilty priest wants to confess. Within “The Boston Globe” itself, many longtime veterans, such as Bill Bradlee, Jr. (John Slattery) and Steve Kurkjian (Gene Amaroso) seem stuck in a state of denial in which they resist every question their colleagues ask. Even the lawyers who represented known victims resist them at every turn, including Robinson’s good friend Jim Sullivan (Jamey Sheridan). Enter the quirky curmudgeon Mitchell Garabedian (a brilliant turn by Stanley Tucci), who wants desperately to help his clients, but fears the Catholic church like illegal bookies fear the mob. From every angle and into every corner, the film illuminates the darkness present where the light should shine brightest.
“Spotlight” contains the finest ensemble performance since “Goodfellas.” Each actor plays perfectly off the others and is clearly and authentically invested in the story. Of the leads, Rachel McAdams and Mark Ruffalo stand out most. McAdams intuits the pain of faith leaking away from a person’s soul, knowing full well the hurt her story will cause to those closest to her. Sacha Pfeiffer has more to lose personally than any other character, and the scenes with her devout mother remain breathtaking and heartbreaking at the same time. Ruffalo’s Rezendes’ workaholic ways take a toll on his marriage, but the story takes what little faith he has away in small pieces on after another. Ruffalo demonstrates the devastation of watching a man’s faith die before your eyes, slowly but surely, until he’s left adrift asking for a meaning he felt he had. They are both brilliant actors giving truly heartrending performances. I wept as much for the reporters who found themselves stuck in the sewer of this story as I did for the victims whose lives were forever blackened by the men who should have brought them only love and compassion.
Michael Keaton should have won the Oscar for Best Actor last year. He delivers an able performance this time around, but I doubt he’ll get a nomination for it, which is a shame. He’s shown in “Spotlight” his talent for true drama is real and impactful. His performance works as well as any other in the film except in one area–he just can’t quite get that Boston accent down. It comes and goes in places, which could be a little distracting.
The supporting cast cannot be ignored at all, either. Jamey Sheridan demonstrates a surprising amount of range as the conflicted lawyer Sullivan. Billy Crudup gets underused, and a little stereotyped, as a heartless attorney who seems just out to make a buck off the suffering of others. Stanley Tucci, however, serves up a spicy activist who’s beaten down, but not beaten, by the system in victim’s lawyer Garabedian. He relishes his curmudgeonly mannerisms, doling out cynical advice to Rezendes while yelling at everybody who’s not a client. Michael Cyril Creighton is wonderful as victim Joe Crowley. He is a picture of a broken man, struggling to put himself back together years after his abuse, though some pieces have been stolen from him. Michael Countryman bears mention as Richard Gillman, a victim and victim’s advocate who has been dismissed as a fringe lunatic. While Gillman certainly has his issues, much of his information becomes important.
Director McCarthy co-wrote a tightly constructed screenplay with Josh Singer (“The West Wing,” “Fringe”). The action in this film is carried fully and terrifically by the excellent dialogue the actors bring to life. Not one line is wasted. Each carries meaning and moves the story forward without any lull. In some ways, it calls to mind “The Insider,” Al Pacino and Russell Crowe’s 1999 chronicle of “60 Minutes” revelation of the tobacco industry. Both films use dialogue heavy storytelling to give audiences a smartly acted and compelling narrative. Of the two, however, “Spotlight” is the better film. McCarthy’s direction gives the proper amount of compassion to the story. He doesn’t hype it or demonize it, he simply tells it as best he can by sticking to the facts and giving his actors plenty of great lines to work with. Though the reporters remain protagonists, McCarthy doesn’t let them play out as the heroes of the film. Really, there are no heroes here, only victims and villains.
“Spotlight” is a moving and compassionate look at the scandal that still rocks the Catholic Church and much of the world today. It asks important questions about the role of the church in the communities it serves and about the role of faith in our lives and where faith comes from. The most important and horrific question, though, is why any of this happened in the first place, and still does?
In select theaters now
