Weekend at the Movies | Spotlight |

As the Academy Awards season draws near, I am inching to see most of the best film nominees and this weekend all eyes were on on ‘Spotlight’.

Spotlight, directed by Tom McCarthy, focuses on the The Boston Globe’s ‘Spotlight’ team, and their investigative work pertaining to cases of widespread child sex abuse by numerous Roman Catholic Priests, primarily in the Boston area. Set in 2001, the film is based on a series of stories, published by the paper’s real ‘Spotlight’ team, that won them a Pultizer Prize in 2003.

Spotlight to me was an unpretentious film with a powerful story. The narrative is simple and straightforward, which is refreshing departure from so many of today’s hyper-visual movies. That being said, I was glued to my seat for the entire duration of 2 hours, watching intently as the film swiftly unraveled. I also feel the transparent direction style, required the stellar cast to really bring the characters alive as they had no visual effects or masks to hide behind. Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci, Brian d’Arcy James and Liev Schreiber, play their parts beautifully and truly do not disappoint.

The story begins by ‘The Globe’ hiring a new editor, Marty Baron, who whilst feeling like an outsider, holds his own and slowly but surely, steers the attention of the ‘spotlight’ team to the child abuse cases, brought to light by a lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian, who says that Cardinal Law (the Archbishop of Boston) knew that the priest John Geoghan was sexually abusing children and did nothing to stop him. Hesitantly, taking from there Walter “Robby” Robinson and his team of 3 people, begin to dig into the case until some shocking facts and statistics, convince them that this is a story worth writing about.

As more cases unfold, the film explores how the investigation personally affects the ‘spotlight’ journalists with realisations that this could have happened to any of them. The irony of betrayal is also touched upon as it comes to the victims through someone they know and trust. The story also implicitly questions, the requirements of joining a religious faith, like celibacy, and highlights the long term traumatic effects of child abuse.

The play between institutional resistance of the Catholic Church and the paper’s dedication to tell the story for the sake of the victims and the tussle between lawyers ‘doing their jobs’ and doing good for the community is also simply put forth. The dynamics of ethics — both religious and professional are touched upon as well.

For me the interesting aspects are, first, the passionate investigation of the ‘spotlight’ team. Second — the interactions between the characters in the story — the subtle tension between the Marty Baron(Liev Schreiber) and the Cardinal, the hesitant camaraderie between the journalists and their interviewees (mainly victims), the dedication of lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian and his bittersweet interactions with journalist Mike Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), the cautious respect that Walter “Robby” Robinson (Michael Keaton) develops for Marty Baron and finally the amazing cohesiveness of the Spotlight team, to see this investigation to fruition. Last but not the least is the neat execution of a composite screenplay, with no sensationalism.

At the end of the film one might experience a slight shock & awe or be nudged with some existentialist questions but this is a film to watch for both film buffs and casual movie goers. A great ode to meaningful journalism and perhaps the triumph of truth.

Well on to more movies for now, but I feel might be rooting for this one in March!