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How entertaining? ★★★★☆
Thought provoking? ★★★☆☆ 5 October 2015
A movie review of SPOTLIGHT.Seen at the Toronto International Film Festival 2015. (For more information, click here.)
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“Go be curious somewhere else,” Steve Kurkjian (Gene Amoroso)
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes of cinema ignominy, director Tom McCarthy has left behind last year’s dire Adam Sandler team-up, THE COBBLER, and delivered an awards contender. Like the police equivalent, a journalistic procedural can be just as satisfying if attention is paid to detail and pace. From ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN to ZODIAC, there is pedigree, and SPOTLIGHT can hold its head up. The title comes from the name given to the investigative team, at The Boston Globe newspaper, charged with in-depth analysis of current affairs. The film’s concern is the based on actual events examination into child molestation, by the Catholic Church in the city, and the wide-ranging cover up.
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes of cinema ignominy, director Tom McCarthy has left behind last year’s dire Adam Sandler team-up, THE COBBLER, and delivered an awards contender. Like the police equivalent, a journalistic procedural can be just as satisfying if attention is paid to detail and pace. From ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN to ZODIAC, there is pedigree, and SPOTLIGHT can hold its head up. The title comes from the name given to the investigative team, at The Boston Globe newspaper, charged with in-depth analysis of current affairs. The film’s concern is the based on actual events examination into child molestation, by the Catholic Church in the city, and the wide-ranging cover up.
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Television and cinema has started to delve into the abuse of minors, at the hands of the Catholic Church, around the world. From the small screen RAY DONOVAN to documentary MEA MAXIMA CULPA: SILENCE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD to Chilean masterwork, THE CLUB. Pope Francis’ recent visit to America is a timely coincidence.
Not holding back, commencement has a strategic cover-up, of a child molestation allegation, by police, prosecutor’s office and the Church. As a lawyer for many of the victims, Mitchell Garabedian (Stanley Tucci), states, “If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one.” That goes to the heart of the movie: A believable, disturbing conspiracy involving criminality-collusion-denial on every level of society. TRUE DETECTIVE season one attempted to create a fictional dissection of such depravity, and only reconciled its ideas by the climax through a depiction of existential crisis.
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Catalyst at the newspaper comes with a changing of the guard. Our intro to them is a retirement drinks, and then the appointing of a new editor, Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber). Currently looking at the Boston police, Spotlight can spend a year or more on a topic. Led by Walter Robinson (Michael Keaton), the other three members of the team are: Michael Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams) and Matty Carroll (Brian d’Arcy James).
One gets the impression, throughout, that you do not want to be caught in Spotlight’s crosshairs. (And it is comforting to know such a body exists.) Tenacious, and with righteous myopic fervour, they are a laser piercing the veil. Baron asks them to stop their current project, and look into the city’s Catholic Church. The audience knows what the outcome of those findings will eventually be; the tension comes from the obstacles placed in front of the team.
If one of the film’s aims is to raise audience hackles at the levels of societal rot, then SPOTLIGHT succeeds. Fascinatingly, even The Globe itself is not exempt from blame.
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