Spotlight (2015)
Biography, Drama, History
Directed By: Tom McCarthy
History has always been best taught through film, this is something I believe now and always will. The best way to show someone the true impact of what came before is to actually show them what happened. Even when films pick and choose what to tell you the story can be enough to inspire one to go home and research on their own, and when you are able to paint a picture of what it was like it is much easier to comprehend. It doesn't need to be an event from fifty or one hundred years ago, as director Tom McCarthy has shown us with his recent film Spotlight. Taking us back just 15 years to 2001-02, a time that most of us would consider recent memory, he is able to enlighten audiences to one of the most horrific tragedies this world has ever known.
The film centers on a group of investigative journalists at The Boston Globe called "Spotlight" and their uncovering of the massive conspiracy within the local Catholic Church. "Spotlight" is a small team of journalists who investigate one story at a time, looking to break open the secrets of their city. When they get asked to take on a story about Catholic priests molesting children, and the cover up of these molestations by higher powers, the team is more than ready to investigate. What they would uncover over the next almost year is more devastating and disgusting than any of us could have ever imagined.
At just over two hours this film is incredibly paced, moving from one piece of the story to the next I never felt a dull moment. They rip your heart out and throw it in your face in the opening two minutes and it never lets up from there, with the stories seeming to get worse and worse with each passing scene. Tom McCarthy has accomplished the near impossible by making a news crew sitting around an office for two hours some of the most intense and riveting cinema you will see all year.
When the story broke in 2002 it made big waves, but reading text on paper can only go so far. Seeing these people's story told on screen I felt I got so much more of the impact of what happened. Watching Mark Ruffalo's character get angrier and angrier as the film moves on until he finally snaps gives you a whole new idea of how these things actually affect people. We have been reading about priests abusing children for years but it isn't until it is shown in a context like this, that breaks it down in the most simplistic ways so anyone can understand, that people begin to get a grasp of the severity of it.
Making any film that focuses on religion or the people of religion is a huge risk, making one that damns the entire system is like walking into a minefield blindfolded, much like it was for the Spotlight team when writing this story. They constantly were being contacted by members of the church or the community that thought they should give the investigation up, even while keeping it all top secret it seemed anyone involved with the church knew what was happening. It's incredible to see how far people will go to blindly defend and institution that has lied to them for centuries just because it is something that they were raised with.
In a film where most of the scenes are journalists sitting around a desk the acting is clearly important, and incredible performances from the entire cast truy shape this movie into the heartbreaking masterpiece that it is. Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, and Stanley Tucci are all playing at the top of their game delivering essential performances however, it is Mark Ruffalo and Liev Schreiber that stand out the most with both delivering some of the best work we have ever seen from them. Schreiber has a small role and is only in a handful of scenes but his character is crucial and his departure from his usual larger than life self is fantastic. Ruffalo steals the show though, He is the character that I as a viewer connected most with, the anger and pain he feels by the end of the movie I shared with him entirely and when he finally breaks down I was ready to do the same.
Spotlight is an essential film, it opens the doors on so many ignored aspects of not just Catholicism, but of religion in general and that for all the good it has done it has also done just as much negative. Not only that but it shows how easily people will turn a blind eye to protect the sanctity of something they have known for so long. It is constantly thrown in our faces throughout the film that this story is hardly the first we knew of child abuse in the church, it is just the first time anyone with the power actually tried to do something. Leaving the theater the crowd was maybe the most somber I have ever seen while leaving a film, many eyes were red with tears and no one had a smile on their face. It is a heavy movie to take in and it won't leave you feeling good about your local church, but continuing to turn a blind eye is infinitely worse.
As always, thanks for reading and I am Zach Who Watches Movies. You can find me anytime on twitter @ZachWWMovies, smell ya later!
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