Nordling here.
There is a moment in the third act of Tom McCarthy’s SPOTLIGHT, when reporter Mike Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), frustrated and upset, has a pure emotional outburst towards his editor Walter “Robby” Robinson (Michael Keaton). Robinson has decided to wait a bit longer before publishing an article for the Boston Globe, a Spotlight article tearing down years of secrecy and wrongdoing by the Catholic Church and Archbishop Barnard Law’s cover-up of the molestation of children for decades. Rezendes rants in anger and sorrow, while pragmatic Robinson looks on.
As Rezendes expresses his outrage, he becomes a surrogate for us, the audience. How could this happen? And even then, how could no one say anything? Much like Oskar Schindler’s tearful breakdown in SCHINDLER’S LIST, it is a cathartic moment, full of release, and yet so antithetical to what has been established before in the film. And then we realize – the only way SPOTLIGHT could tell its story with any success is with detachment and restraint. It does so because not only do the facts speak eloquently enough for themselves, but because it’s not the film’s job to rage. It simply informs. When it comes to the rage and fury, that’s what we’re supposed to do. The true tragedy of SPOTLIGHT is that no one did until it was too late.
SPOTLIGHT comes from the long tradition of great newspaper movies like ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN, ACE IN THE HOLE, and ZODIAC. Tom McCarthy, working with a crackerjack script by McCarthy and Josh Singer, isn’t letting anyone off the hook by keeping the sentiment and raw emotion to a minimum. Instead, he shines a camera directly into the cracks of the façade, as a revered institution is exposed and good people wait for someone, anyone, to speak out.
When new editor Marty Baron (Live Schreiber) arrives at the Boston Globe, tensions and worries run high in the staff that Baron will upend the news section for more corporate interests. But Baron has another agenda in mind – to get the story about the possibility that Cardinal Bernard Law (Lou Cariou) knew about and helped cover up years of molestation by several priests in the diocese. To that end. Baron enlists Spotlight, a Globe team of investigative reporters headed up by Robinson to get to the heart of the matter.
As Ben Bradlee Jr. (John Slattery) supervises the reporters, including Rezendes, Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams), and Matt Carroll (Brian d’Arcy James), it becomes quickly apparent that ore priests are involved than previously thought. Attorney Mitchell Garabedian (Stanley Tucci), representing several victims, doesn’t trust anyone to get the story right, and no one, including the reporters themselves, is willing to believe that the problem is as endemic and widespread as it is. The ugly truth is there all along, and not only do the reporters have to find the hard evidence and facts to tell this explosive story, they must also get over their own disillusionment and reluctance to believe that these horrible deeds were happening in plain sight in Boston.
Every performance in SPOTLIGHT is graceful and honest. McAdams, Tucci, James, Slattery, and Schreiber all do grand work. Mark Ruffalo’s work is exemplary – Rezendes is a driven reporter, who lets his personal relationships go by the wayside as he hungrily chases lead after lead, but as the evidence mounts, so does his rage and horror. Ruffalo is a firecracker. Michael Keaton’s work, though, is even better than his work in last year’s BIRDMAN, because he puts the war in his eyes. Robertson is a man who grew up with these people, who understands the community, and his unwillingness to accept what has happened is in direct conflict with his journalistic instincts and integrity. Robertson is pragmatic, almost to a fault, but he wants to get the story right, even if that truth is personally devastating to him. Even when haranguing a potential source, Robertson is reticent to dig too deeply, even though he must do so. Keaton is wonderful in a role that is less histrionic than BIRDMAN, but no less effective and moving.
Even those familiar with the sex abuse scandal will find themselves surprised and shocked at how a blind eye was turned for so long, and Spotlight's team of reporters and editors are wrecked by what they discover. Their astonishment and guilt becomes our own. SPOTLIGHT also reminds us that, in a world of clickbait Buzzfeed articles, where headlines titillate instead of inform, that the press is more important than ever. It isn’t simply a war of discovering facts and gathering evidence, it’s a war against our own apathy and complacency, in a 24-hour news world that numbs more than it enlightens, and the constant fighting through the cacophony of the day to become truly engaged. Tom McCarthy’s film is a warning of what may come, and a mourning of what was lost. This is an extraordinary and important film.
Nordling, out.
