Interesting, disturbing, doing-the-right-thing drama

Rating: 8/10 (26 January 2016)

I had deliberately not seen much about this film, I knew the subject, I knew the cast, but I didn't go into the nominations, the reviews or anything before watching it, I wanted to be surprised and entertained without setting too much expectations in the way. It was difficult not getting any info on this, It hasn't premiered here in Denmark yet, but is already collecting a ton of reviews from the US, but I managed to see it at a special sneak peek before release, arranged by kino.dk and it was very good.
It is a very interesting way of showing these events or the notion and exploration of them, seeing it all from the journalists, how the start digging at something that seems small and then it just escalates, in Denmark there wasn't that big a fuzz about this, we are not that many catholics, so seeing the attention and wide range it had for the city of Boston and how it spread after the story broke is quite overwhelming. That this could even happen and be covered up again and again is appalling, but the film shows the story from a very good side, I expect that had it been some years ago, it would have focused more on the "bad" priests, what they did and why they did and how they covered it up, but seeing it all from the investigative side, from the journalists at The Boston Globe Spotlight division is really interesting. How they keep digging and digging, uncovering more cases, finding more survivors, talking to people and lawyers and trying to make it all make sense.
The acting is really good, they are all experienced at their jobs, some a bit out off their usual element, but they do a very fine job. Especially Mark Ruffalo as the workaholic, very persistence reporter, but also Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams & Liev Schreiber have some great roles as the Spotlight reporters, I could extend the list to all the other cast members, they all do a fantastic job. You can see the tenacity, persistence, frustrations and excitement on all of them, they don't know how deep the rabbit hole will be, they don't know who they will drag into this, they just know they are on to something and they have to be meticulous, secretive, stubborn and just keep at it.
It was a treat seeing this at a special screening before the release here in Denmark, in has been out in the states for some time, but will not have theatrical release here before end February.
Location, seating & time: Dagmar, Nordisk Film, Vesterbro, Denmark - Bio 4, row 4 seat 1, 2, 4 & 6 - 26.01.2016 at 16.30