Movie Review" Spotlight"

Spotlight (2015)

R

5 Stars out of 5

Director                                Tom McCarthy
Writer                                   Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer
Cinematography                 Masanobu Takayanagi
Editing                                  Tom McArdle
Music                                    Howard Shore

Mark Ruffalo                       Mike Rezendes
Michael Keaton                  Walter Robinson (Robbie)
Rachel McAdams               Sacha Pfeiffer
Liev Schreiber                     Marty Baron      
John Slattery                       Ben Bradlee, Jr.
Stanley Tucci                       Mitchell Garabedian

 

It is rare for me to find a movie or TV show where I cannot stop talking throughout the film (pity my poor wife) or program about how great the writing is (see “The Wire” 2002 – 2008 for a TV version of great writing). It is even rarer for the acting, directing and editing to be at just the same high level of performance. Finally, it is unbelievably rare for that same film (should it be a movie) to be the winner for that year’s Oscar Best Picture Award, and yet writer/director Tom McCarthy (along with co-writer Josh Singer) has done just that with 2015’s “Spotlight”. The story-telling and completely believable characters that inhabit this film seem so true to actual people that you too may be tempted to exclaim throughout the movie, “why can’t more pictures be as authentic in their depictions of real people, how they think, react and act”. This is truly a 5 Star Movie.

“Spotlight” begins with a priest in trouble with the law for child abuse. He is being held in a Police precinct holding area while in another room, a second priest “counsels” the family of the children abused by the first priest. A telling conversation takes place in an outer office by two policemen; the older, more experienced policeman evinces little hope to the younger cop that any real justice will take place in the back rooms. Shortly thereafter, we the see accused priest being driven off with the second priest in a dark limousine. No further views of the family are to be seen.

The movie jumps to the first day for a new editor at the Boston Globe, Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber). The introduction of the new editor unsettles the staff at the Globe as they are already fearful of layoffs, and Baron coming as he does from Miami brings both the persona of the Outsider and the reputation of a corporate axman, someone with a history of cutting costs by cutting people. The use of the Outsider in this early phase and indeed throughout the movie is extremely clever as it helps define the insularity of Boston. Despite being in the Top 25 largest US cities, Boston (at least in this movie) is seen to be a very homogenous city where the various powers in the city, the police, the district attorney’s office, the press, and the Catholic Church all work so closely together there is none of the expected checks and balances between these forces. As this movie progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that those working to (say) enforce the law or to prosecute the law in the name of the city’s victims will instead in some cases work just as hard, perhaps harder to help protect the name of the Catholic Church. The abuse victims that come to light as the movie moves forward will be the unnamed collateral damage in the fight for some greater good that by protecting the Church’s reputation will allow the Church to provide.

As the staff of the Globe get to know their new editor it is made quickly clear that while he is indeed there to review staffing versus costs, he is also very interested in pushing the Globe’s investigative team, Spotlight, into pursuing hard hitting stories. Early in his tenure, he wants them to drop what they are doing and work on a story he had recently read in a Globe column concerning a pedophile priest, Father John Geoghan. More to Baron’s point though is the article’s coverage of a local lawyer’s, Mitchell Garabedian (Stanley Tucci) assertion that the local Catholic Archbishop, Cardinal Bernard Law (Len Cariou) has known of Geoghan’s activities for years and has been covering them up. This dual focus of Spotlight’s investigative team (i.e. individual priest pederasty vs. systemic cover-ups) will create some dramatic tension on the Spotlight team as the members do not always have the same target in mind. However, it also raises many disturbing questions; not the least of which is “what are the Church’s priorities”?

“Spotlight” will now begin a fascinating journey as the movie employ’s many Newspaper Movie clichés in its efforts to demonstrate the tenacity and the tedium needed to research a problem. In this case, the team will discover that the abuse of children by Catholic priests is an old problem, one kept secret via the efforts of the Church and the complicity of the city’s power brokers. They will discover that there are patterns in the choice of victims, the heretofore successful efforts at cover-up, and the oftentimes knowing decisions by those set up to protect the innocent to turn their gaze, their concern away from the problem right before their eyes; worse, within their power to do something about. Also complicit in the cover-up is the Globe itself as the movie reveals that they have had in the past five years information that they should have followed up on, but didn’t. Another curious point made by the movie is that the Globe had less obviously incriminating information in their own basement; they just needed the right stimulus to get them to review the data. When they did start looking for patterns in those basement books of the Church’s records for each priest in the Boston diocese, they could see that the Church was moving certain priests far more frequently than the average and they were using code words (e.g. sick leave) to conceal the true reason for the move.

This is an excellent movie – there is no other way to describe it. Director Tom McCarthy has set the pacing and use of camera angles to expertly create a kind of tension that would not normally be expected from a team of reporters poring over books in the Globe’s basement. McCarthy has also in his command some of the year’s best acting. Michael Keaton as the Spotlight team leader, “Robbie” Robinson is asked to portray a wide range of emotions as he skirts his own loyalty and history to the Church as well as that to the Globe and investigative journalism. He is shown to be torn as he realizes his own role in the history of the problem; consider for example, the scene of his return to his high school (ironically, directly across the street from the Globe) to discuss with one of this former classmates a third classmate that had been abused by a priest while a student at that school. The pull of his conflicting loyalties play across his face in an astonishingly clear manner. Another good pair of performance are by Spotlight team members Mike Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo) and Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams). McAdams must like Robbie balance her own relationships to the Globe and in her case, to her Nana’s touchingly played devotion to the Church. Ruffalo has a more influential role as he is the ultimate author of the article. Additionally, he is apparently also battling some internal demons. What these demons are is never made clear. Ruffalo plays Rezendes as a man determined to expose the priests involved in the various abuse cases. He flies from room to room, from airport to Justice Department buildings and on to the Globe. His demeanor is of one possessed at times as he screams out his frustrations at the slow pace of the investigation.

As good as the above acting is the best is by Schreiber. He comes into the Globe and immediately takes charge. He is the Outsider, not a Bostonian, not a Catholic, but he is in charge. What is most delightful about his acting is the manner in which he takes control. An excellent example is the initial meeting between Schreiber’s character, Marty and the Spotlight staff. They want to stay on a story they working on the Boston P.D. Marty most clearly wants them to move to the child abuse story. He does not rant, he does not command, he suggests and comments. It is clear what he wants, and despite the ever present reluctance of every Bostonian in this movie to challenge the Church, that is exactly what he wants them to do. Schreiber’s character will get his way with the Spotlight crew as he will with many others in the film, but it is his calm, clear thinking and decided leadership that win him his arguments. It is so refreshing to see actors acting like real people. This is done from beginning to end in “Spotlight”.

“Spotlight” is as close to a perfect movie as I have seen in several years. My only gripe is the casting of John Slattery as Chief Editor, Ben Bradlee, Jr. His role is not critical to the movie’s success. It is possible I cannot avoid seeing Slattery as “Madmen” executive Roger Sterling due to my own limitations. Unfortunately, Slattery seems to be still playing Sterling on several occasions in “Spotlight”. That being said, this movie is a gem. It is worth seeing for the many technical merits of acting, directing, and editing. But it is also quite clearly worth seeing for the questions it raises regarding the Catholic Church’s decisions during this period. It is tempting to condemn Cardinal Law’s behavior, but I came away wondering at his promotion to the Church’s most prestigious church (Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore) following his public disgrace in the wake of the Globe’s reporting. Was he rewarded with the Rome posting for doing his job? If he was, what are the Church’s values when they balance off the need to maintain the Church’s reputation with the harm done to the abused children? I cannot fathom their motives. It is strongly to McCarthy’s credit that “Spotlight” raises these questions. It is also curious to examine the Church’s generally positive public responses to the movie. It really leaves the viewer with the hope that these abhorrent problems are truly a thing of the past and that the Church has learned from its errors. Time will tell.