A very good film that's been over-hyped, not awards worthy

Rating: 7/10 (15 December 2015)

Amazing cast (but none of them doing career best work), weighty theme handled well (and yet the Church is completely demonized, with no reasonable opposing view of their actions in dealing with the scandal) the direction is fairly tight - however the dialogue is occasionally very on the nose and scenes often skim the surface and then cut away to the next thing without really building or exploring in depth. The music and pacing was fine but at times felt like a really high end TV movie rather than a theatrical film. It is an affecting drama, well-told, I just felt it never reached the fever pitch of outrage it really should have, and the ending is quite underwhelming. There is a lot of talking/exposition/monologuing. Would have been nice for some revelations to happen visually/through action the audience could observe first hand. It feels kind of labored as is. I personally don't think anything about the film is awards worthy, except maybe Ruffalo (what else is new?) and while Todd McCarthy is a fine filmmaker, this is not his best film and nowhere near the directorial achievement of someone like Lenny Abrahamson for Room. I just feel like the reason critics are really raving about this film is that it shows their fellow journalists getting to be the heroes.