Spotlight

UK Release Date. 29 January 2016
Certification. 15
Running Time. 2 hours 9 mins
Director. Tom McCarthy
Cast. Billy Crudup, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci.
Rating. 84%

Review.

Tom McCarthy's Spotlight is an engrossing account of The Boston Globe's Pulitzer-prize winning investigation into the widespread paedophilia scandals within the Catholic Church in Boston. Spotlight won the 2016 Academy Award for Best Motion Picture.

Spotlight is a slow burn, almost restrained at times, quietly gripping the audience with journalistic procedures and the dogged determination involved gathering evidence and the corroboration of accounts. The drama comes from the detail, and the journalists' slow realisation of the scale of the investigation. Is there proof of the existence of a systemic cover-up at the highest levels of the Catholic Church? The authenticity of Spotlight is up there with other seminal journalism offerings, the likes of All The President's Men, Zodiac and State Of Play. 

The ensemble cast - Brian d'Arcy James, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery - are terrific, with several beautifully under-stated performances that become increasingly animated as the investigation gathers steam. The story is limited to the journalists' perspective, ensuring that everything we learn about the scandal comes to us strictly through the eyes and ears of the Spotlight team.

On reflection, perhaps it is no surprise that it falls to an outsider like Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber) - a Florida native and the first Jewish editor of The Boston Globe - to challenge the local Archdiocese. After all, the Catholic Church had inextricably woven itself into the very fabric of Boston life and all its institutions. Even The Boston Globe's readership included a high percentage of Irish-American Catholics. A fact not lost on the journalists themselves.

Spotlight is a sobering example of what happens when 'good men do nothing.' Even at the conclusion of the film, there is little jubilation, instead, the characters are confronted with an uncomfortable sense of injustice and shared guilt.