"If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse them. That's the truth of it."

Rating: 8/10 (9 January 2016)

If someone were to sit me down and ask me what my most anticipated films of 2015 were. I would say that Mad Max was it, beginning and end of list. Then I saw a trailer for a film called Spotlight. My list immediately grew to two.
A new editor-in-chief from Miami comes to work at the Boston Globe. His first big action while there is to question why no one has investigated the claims of a priest molesting kids. After some pushback, he finally decides to hand it to 'Spotlight', a team of four journalists who tackle in depth investigative projects. They make it their mission to expose not only the disgraceful actions of a few priests in their neighbourhood, but the system that tried to cover it all up.
For some reason, films that deal with newsprint appeals to me. I don't get why, they just do. One of the more underrated films that falls into this category, is coincidentally another Keaton film, The Paper. Maybe I had that in the back of my mind when I decided I needed to see this film, but I'm glad I saw it because it deserves to be seen.
Spotlight isn't afraid to tackle a serious and touchy subject matter and it does so with careful precision and thought. What makes the film relatable is that is never leaves the current situation of the neighbourhood. We see the story through the eyes of the journalists and the streets of that neighbourhood. We don't get these grand aerial shots of the city of Boston, because we are confined to the horrors that live on those neighbourhood streets. Spotlight isn't a showy film, save for one scene; it's mostly static shots of people talking. Yet I was glued to the screen.
One of the biggest things going for Spotlight is how well the cast works together. There are some heavy hitters here: Michael Keaton, straight off his career high with Birdman, delivers another knockout performance of Spotlight team leader Walter Robinson. The real Robinson would go on to say that it feels as is Keaton has "stolen his identity, that's how weird it was to watch him become me". Mark Ruffalo is reporter Michael Rezendes, who goes to great lengths to make sure the story is told, no matter what the consequences are to them. Ruffalo has the grandiose scene where he breaks down about wanting to print the story immediately, but is being told no. He conveys the right amount of emotion without going over the top. The lone female of the group, Sacha Pfeiffer is played by Rachel McAdams. She is able to hold her own against more heavyweights and has one of the most uncomfortable scenes in the entire film when she confronts a priest who admits that he molested children, but sees no wrongdoings in it. That scene in the film took place in real life.
I could go on and on about how excellent the cast is here, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Brian d'Arcy James, Stanley Tucci are all excellent, with Tucci having the more underrated performance of the film. He's a lawyer trying to fight the good fight, being the voice of the victims, when others looked away. He has a line that he delivers to Ruffalo about being an outsider, which strikes everything home.
I did find myself being a little emotional towards the end of the film. There are some emotional moments scattered throughout, specifically one involving victims recounting the abuse. Spotlight is a magnificently crafted film that soars due to the cast and the horrific nature of the content. Seeing the names of the cities at the end of the film left me in shock as to how close some of them are to me. One of the best of the year.