Top on your list of films to see this weekend should be Spotlight, which opens Friday at a theater near you.
Spotlight (Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, John Slattery, Liev Schreiber, Billy Crudup, Stanley Tucci) – The exposure of an international scandal involving widespread sexual abuse by priests of the Catholic Church began in 2002 thanks to an investigative team of journalists at the Boston Globe. Spotlight tells the story of that four-person unit, known as Spotlight.
The comparison to All The President’s Men is inevitable. Alan J. Pakula’s epic, eight-time Oscar-nominated film detailing the Washington Post’s investigative journalism that exposed Watergate, won four Oscars. Spotlight isn’t that good but it is a well-told, well-executed ensemble piece. Oscar nominations are likely more for the subject matter than for the technical merits of the film. All the President’s Men contained an element of intrigue and suspense not present in Spotlight. Bernstein, Woodward and their editors were bugged and threatened; Deep Throat insisted on meetings in the shadows of an underground parking lot. In Spotlight, pressure is applied but no one is threatened. The tension has to be manufactured, which doesn’t hurt the film, but informs the comparison.
The great strength of Spotlight resides in the outstanding, ensemble cast. This film doesn’t have a dominant star. The investigative team is played by an impressive line-up of just-below A-listers Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, and Brian D’arcy James (Ruffalo and Keaton were nominated for Oscars last year). Always reliable actors Liev Schreiber and John Slattery portray their editors. Billy Crudup and the exceptional Stanley Tucci play lawyers well aware of the abuses going on. Ruffalo’s portrayal of reporter Mike Rezendes is the most spirited of the cast. Schreiber’s performance as quiet, anti-social, newly hired executive editor Marty Baron is subtle and understated. And Keaton’s as Spotlight’s editor Walter “Robbie” Robinson provides the heart of the film.
Kudos to director/writer Tom McCarthy, whose previous indie films Win Win, The Station Agent, and The Visitor were all exceptional, broadens his sights here and largely succeeds. He doesn’t quite measure up to Pakula (Sophie’s Choice, The Pelican Brief, Presumed Innocent, The Devil’s Own) but few have.
As a chronicle of investigative journalism, Spotlight is exceptional. It shows the hard work, the barriers, the dead ends, and the toll it takes on reporters. As an expose of the heinous actions and unconscionable cover-up by the Church, it is revealing and incomprehensible. But as drama, it is a shade less than compelling. This could have been a documentary, of course. Instead, it is a very good feature film that will be seen by a far wider audience.