Rank: 4/5
It’s not glamorous, but it’s real.
While the film “Spotlight” can drag at points, the based-on-true-events movie about Boston Globe journalists who exposed decades of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in 2002 is just subtle enough to seem realistic.
The beige scenes of Boston and cluttered newsroom filled the silver screen, and the movie wasn’t as dramatic or pretty as expected for holiday season Oscar bait, but plot subtleties and watching characters figure out an investigation was still fascinating.
Director Thomas McCarthy nails newsroom culture, the obsessive mental cogs in investigative reporters and honestly portrays the process of justice through a talented cast including Michael Keaton , Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Brian d’Arcy James, Liev Schreiber and John Slattery.
Michael Keaton’s character, Walter “Robby” Robinson, turns into one of the film’s unlikely heroes as he pivots the direction on the story. The investigative team’s editor isn’t completely convinced about a story pushed by the new executive editor, and questions it almost villainously.
He eventually changes his mind, but on his own — not by an editor’s convincing. Robinson’s attitude isn’t charming, but it is unquestionably real, showing change comes slowly and falls flat if ideas don’t come internally.
Later, when the reporting takes time or doesn’t come through, there are no heroic monologues about ‘the good fight’ as characters lash out with frustration. And as anyone who aims to make change knows the process isn’t all montages and fight songs — it’s ugly.
The unseemly reporting methods are also portrayed through Mark Ruffalo’s character, Michael Rezendes, who is so consumed with the story that he further pushes away his estranged wife. He has the type of obsession audiences aren’t used to seeing on screen — not one of love unrequited or family drama, but a man obsessed with his job and he unfaulted for it.
The audience knows the investigative “Spotlight” team received a Pulitzer Prize and wrote about 600 subsequent stories surrounding the abuse allegations, but the process to get there isn’t expected. For that, it’s worth the two-plus hour wait.