SPOTLIGHT : Tuesday 2nd February 2016

'SPOTLIGHT' which I saw earlier this week is a truly compelling film account of the true life facts surrounding the systematic abuse of children by the Catholic Church spanning decades. Directed by Tom McCarthy and with an all star award winning ensemble cast, this film was made for US$20M and has so far made US$37M having premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in early September before general release in the US on 6th November and here in Australia on 20th January. Nominated for six yet to be announced Academy Awards, those being for Best Film, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing and Best Supporting Actor and Actress, as well as three  also yet to be announced BAFTA nominations for Best Actor, Best Film and Best Screenplay. Additionally, it has garnered along the way 84 award wins and another 107 award nominations - not so bad at all, and, hardly surprising given the acting talent on display here, the story telling and the manner in which the subject matter is handled on screen.

And so to that subject matter which make this so compelling, and a story that had to be told, and that as a consequence, had much further reaching implications worldwide. The film opens with the appointment of a new Editor to The Boston Globe newspaper in 2001 - Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber) who is quickly introduced to Walter 'Robby' Robinson (Michael Keaton) who heads up the famed 'Spotlight' Team for the newspaper. This small but experienced group of investigative journalists work tirelessly on hand picked cases to investigate and expose, often taking months and up to a year to bring their story and its findings to print. The Spotlight Team has been operating since 1970, and is the longest running continuous newspaper investigative team working in the US. Baron, of Jewish decent, picks up on a former case about a paedophile priest and a lawyer Mitchell Garabedian (Stanley Tucci) who knew that the Archbishop of Boston Cardinal Bernard Law (Lou Cariou) knew of the priests sexual abuse of children but did nothing about it. This case was reported in Globe but only a few column inches were dedicated to it and it was quickly covered up and buried by the Church.

Gathering Robinson and Ben Bradlee (John Slattery) together who both work as investigators and Editors at The Globe and on the Spotlight Team, Baron tasks them with digging deeper and to investigate the story thoroughly putting whatever resources necessary toward their case. Robinson and Bradlee agree somewhat reluctantly believing there to be just one priest who has moved around through the years. And so the remaining team are each assigned tasks - Michael Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo on fine form and noticeably slimmed down),  Matt Carroll (Brian d'Arcy James) and Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams) begin to quickly uncover more than they bargained for.

Rezendes meets with Garabedian who has ongoing direct contact with such victims of abuse but has been banned for speaking about such cases by the Church - but he is a reliable source of information and history. Pfeiffer and Robinson meet up with a guy who leads a victims rights group and provides evidence of abuse and cover ups by the Church going back many years, but the group has dwindled to just a handful because some have moved on, many are embarrassed and ashamed, and many are too tired to pursue any action of recompense further. But, it provides further evidence for the investigative Team. In turn they track down attorney Eric MacLeish (Billy Crudup) who has defended a number of priests against such claims but is sworn to not disclose any matters relating to those cases. Pfeiffer and Carroll also start interviewing willing victims all of whom have their own shocking stories to tell of their younger years at the hands of their caring local neighbourhood priest.

As their digging deepens so it becomes evident that there have been cover ups by the Church for many many years, and indications lead to thirteen priests in all that now come under much closer scrutiny across the Boston area. The Team further learns through Richard Sipe (Richard Jenkins in telephone voiceover only), a former Benedictine priest of almost twenty years, and now professional psychotherapist who has worked with rehabilitating paedophile priests, that in his expert estimation there is likely to be 6% of the priesthood who are offenders, and therefore by his estimation that would be ninety priests in the Boston area. This statistic stuns the Team, but gels them into further intensity in their investigations.

In doing so The Spotlight Team soon uncover 87 names that they have determined are legitimate repeat child sex offenders and that Cardinal Law knew about this, and did nothing to stop it, and allowed further ongoing abuse . . . and so did a number of public officials, spanning decades. To support the case The Boston Globe wins the right to have a number of legally sealed evidentiary documents  released into the public domain, which provide firm conclusive proof that Cardinal Law knew of these activities and chose to ignore them. As a result the Team set about preparing their final work for release in the newspaper early in 2002.

As a consequence of their work on exposing this case and bringing it to the worlds attention, the Spotlight Team win The Boston Globe the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. This story which eventually saw over 240 priests exposed in the Greater Boston area (as the end credits tell us) had more far reaching implications around the world as more and more evidence of systematic Catholic Church child abuse came to light, and continues to do so. This film made be pleased not to be a Catholic!

This is a film that had to be told because we have heard these stories in the news all too frequently in more recent years, which of course make this all the more real, relevant and abhorrent. The performances of the Spotlight Team are first rate - nuanced, grounded, emotional and especially that of Ruffalo who has recreated his character with all the nervous energy, mannerisms and expressions and unique characteristics that are worthy of his award nominations, if not a win at least! A truly riveting film that unravels slowly as the Spotlight Team go about their investigative work uncovering more revelations, cover-ups and abuse by those supposedly closest to God! Tom McCarthy who wrote the script with Josh Singer has crafted a brave, relevant, compelling story that is one of this years must-sees!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-