Shining a spotlight on wrongdoing is a big
scoop for a newspaper, but it also holds huge risks. The small team at the Boston Spotlight was charged with investigating the involvement of
Catholic priests in the abuse of children in the 1970’s, just when newspapers
were beginning to founder and a new editor had come aboard. And Marty Baron (Schreiber) was an
astute editor, insisting on pursuing the story even when the staff was a bit
reluctant—except for one, Michael Rezendes (Ruffalo), one of the newer
reporters.
Tom McCarthy, director, and co-writer with Josh
Singer, has once again shown his considerable talent in telling an important
story with grace, compassion, and thoughtfulness (as in The Station Agent, Win Win, and The Visitor) without indulging in
hero worship or lurid descriptions.
That is, he avoided focusing it as a major newspaper scoop, and kept the
attention on the (in)humanity of the issue. Based on a true story, for which the Spotlight received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2003,
McCarthy’s film is a docudrama about the newspaper’s honorable pursuit of the
truth. In their efforts, they
encountered formidable resistance from a shocking number of respected leaders
in the Boston community.
The reluctance of so many to admit
culpability—based on a myriad of reasons even as simple as “It just didn’t
capture my attention” to “Yes I did it, but it wasn’t wrong”–is entirely
understandable in some cases, but reprehensible in others. The film does a fine job in
distinguishing these from one another.
One sign of a story well told is if audience members ask themselves, “What
would I have done?” and have to think about it for a while.
In addition to the drama, McCarthy knows how to
choose musicians and cinematographers who will enhance the drama. Howard Shore’s music swells or lilts at
just the right places to reinforce the drama. Similarly, cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi is skilled in
capturing mood and emotion in the drama and employing the camera as a visual
guide.
Now, back to the actors. Mark Ruffalo gives probably one of his
most memorable performances here, although he is noteworthy in many films
(e.g., Foxcatcher, The Kids are all
Right, The Avengers series, and
television’s The Normal Heart).
As Mike in this film, he shows him as a team player, an eager beaver but
with values, and more importantly one of the few who really champions and wants
to protect children. (I was
dismayed to see how little regard for children so many, even mothers, had, as
well as the absence of any impulse to protect younger children coming up.) Michael Keaton and Rachel McAdams are
noteworthy as well, especially in their “naturalness” in playing their
roles. He in his cool editor
role who resists being regarded above his staff and she in her obviously caring
but crack reporter role.
Actually, the whole ensemble is
outstanding. Liev Schreiber plays
a boss that we would all like to have in his wisdom, listening ear, and smooth
direction of the team. Stanley
Tucci delivers another of his nuanced performances (with hair this time!) as an
outsider in a community that doesn’t seem to want to pay attention to what he
has to say. Billy Crudup and John
Slattery round out an altogether fine cast.
Obviously, I think Spotlight is one of the better films this year owing to the high
level of movie-making production and ethical/moral values it epitomizes.
This is a fine film in just about every
way.
Grade: A By
Donna R. Copeland
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