All the Pope's men

Rating: 8/10 (4 February 2016)

There's a fine long tradition of films centred around newspaper investigations, going all the way back to THE FRONT PAGE in 1931 (which started as a stage play in the 1920s). SPOTLIGHT is at least as good as 1976's ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, the film most of us remember. The Boston Globe's revelations were clearly the Catholic Church's 'Watergate moment'.The script makes the Boston diocese and its archbishop the chief 'villains' in removing (and re-assigning) the offending priests; I wondered why there wasn't more speculation about just how high in the clerical food-chain the decisions to protect the Church's 'good name' were taken.
Mark Ruffalo and Michael Keaton get top honours in the credits, but this is very much an 'ensemble' piece and I'm not sure any of the actors deserve to be singled out. Rachel McAdams is particularly good as the one dogged female in the team of Boston Globe journalists, and Billy Crudup is very convincing as a sleazy lawyer who's made a killing from out-of-court settlements between the diocese and some of the victims. Although their appearances are brief I would also applaud the men who play the victims, now adults but all still haunted by the abuse they suffered as children and teenagers (many were driven to alcohol, drugs, some even to suicide).
Top marks to the writers and the director who have turned this grim and sordid story into a nail-biting thriller; I hope the awards season doesn't overlook them in favour of movies with big-name star turns. This is definitely my favourite of the pictures nominated for gongs this winter.