A Graceful Presentation of Important History, and of an Important Profession

Rating: 9/10 (21 January 2016)

Spotlight is a model for the cinematic presentation of a story based on actual events. It is particularly effective at conveying the importance of a truly independent press, an institution whose mission must always be dedicated to the exposition of information that serves the public interest, difficult as that information is for the public to acknowledge. The film does not attempt to take any credit for the significance of the work that was done by the journalistic team whose efforts it is recreating, but rather wishes to remind us of the importance of that story while honoring those who had the courage and skills to uncover it - even as the prospect of fractured long-term relationships became more likely.
The actual Spotlight investigative team, working for the Boston Globe in the early 2000s, was well aware that the story they were investigating was worth the risk they were taking. They felt compelled to pursue the truth, even as it became possible that systemic moral corruption was endemic within an institution of the highest supposed moral authority. Spotlight is careful to demonstrate that the entire journalistic structure at the Globe, while true to its ethics in pursuing the story to its devastating conclusion, understood the potential risks involved in a massive moral indictment of the Boston Catholic hierarchy. This was not an investigation that was going to be easy to publish and due credit for calmly assessing that risk is given to editor Marty Baron (seen as a person of integrity and humility as quietly portrayed by Liev Schreiber). But they also knew that the implications of what they were uncovering was too grave for them not to pursue and present in all its horror.
The dramatic pace is finely-tuned, neither accelerating the action beyond the discussions, the doubts, the setbacks and the necessary subtext required to provide the audience with clear information more or less in real-time with the journalistic process, but also not slowing down to insert diatribes against particular members of the Boston clergy or the Catholic Church itself. Director Tom McCarthy rightly understands, at this point in time, that the facts provide more-than-sufficient dramatic weight, as they always will with regard to this devastating breakdown in moral judgment by all levels of the Catholic Church.
The acting by the ensemble is also respectful of the notion that these journalists, many raised Catholic though honestly depicted as having lapsed, were not zealots in their pursuit of damning the Church itself. Rather McCarthy and the entire acting team are quietly dedicated to the proposition that the truth-seeking work of the Fourth Estate can be - and in this case had to be - crucially important to the success of a free state. The journalists, at least as portrayed by these actors, understand - without ever preaching it - that even the most sacrosanct of institutions and respected of individuals must bear responsibility before the court of public opinion and sometimes before a court of law for the harms - emotional, spiritual, physical, financial, whatever - that they have caused.
Spotlight's camera work is also effective, plying use of close and medium shots to suitably convey the gravity of the facts being uncovered in the faces and actions of the journalists and those involved in the cover-up of the scandal, and in depicting the burdens of the journalistic process, while also providing the cozy feel of the Boston community, tied so closely in so many important ways to the Catholic Archdiocese. The cinematography is subtly effective without being obtrusive, consistent with the rest of this superbly crafted effort by Tom McCarthy.
All of this is not to say that Spotlight does not slowly build to an end that fully measures the devastation to children and families across the world and over many years that has been promulgated by a Catholic Church - all the way to its top ranks - that purports to guide the moral struggles of over 1.2 billion human beings. This film is a strongly presented reminder of that mind-boggling and head-bowing truth, but also an equally powerful salute to the importance of a free and honest press to bring that truth to the public, and by so doing, helping societies to grapple with the implications of such truths, and to demand justice and reforms from the institutions they hold most dear.