Spotlight's passionate but humble story is served exceptionally by its stellar cast, direction and writing

Rating: 9/10 (30 December 2015)

Tom McCarthey's Spotlight has barely an ounce of unnecessary fat on it. The very first scene tells us everything we need to know about the egregious miscarriage of justice that the team is about to discover. A young police officer asks how the priest will go at his arraignment, to which his older, more veteran counterpart snorts "what arraignment?"
The Catholic Church and its pedophile priests is likely the biggest story of the 21st century. Spotlight does an incredible job exploring the team who broke the story, but avoids the temptation of films like "Kill the Messenger" and "Truth" in painting its journalists as heroes. In Spotlight, the truth is the hero. Right into the final credits, where McCarthey omits the fact that Spotlight won a Pulitzer Prize for their investigation, McCarthey isn't interested in heroes, just truth.
The ensemble of Spotlight is absolutely incredible, with each Spotlight cast member (Ruffalo, McAdams, James and Keaton), supporting characters in John Slattery, Liev Schreiber and Stanley Tucci and even the film's minor characters having their moment to shine. Those who were given the small but vital task of playing the abuse victims absolutely nail each of their scenes, but no less impressive is a priest who openly admits to molesting kids but is also a destroyed shell having been raped himself. McCarthey (and Singer) gives all characters a sense of depth and importance, often showing us enough so that we can perceive more than the screenplay can include. As the script gives us pieces of information, we remember bits from previous scenes that we don't realise that we've absorbed, which says so much about how subtle the acting is. Ben (Slattery), we are told could have been eligible for Marty (Schreiber)'s job, but didn't get there fast enough. Its very easy then to remember minor behaviours and facial expressions that Ben has had in previous scenes, and suddenly his behaviour makes sense. Spotlight is a movie that can impress you on the surface, and awe you when you look deeper into it.
Mark Ruffalo is firmly best in show as Mike Rezendes, one of the Spotlight investigators. Imitating Rezendes' mannerisms and vocal patterns to a T, its incredible how different this performance is from his equally amazing work in Foxcatcher, The Kids Are All Right and even the MCU. He gets likely the best scene in the movie, blowing your hair back as he shouts that their story can't wait. The impact of Ruffalo's performance is helped because everyone else is incredible but subtle. Liev Schreiber is a very quiet and dignified, slightly out of his depth but a very strong leader despite it, and Spotlight likely numbers in his best work. Slattery is terrific (and probably the most underrated performance in the film) as the "old guard" kind of guy. He could easily have been antagonistic and out of touch, but in the hands of Slattery he's a much more subtle character. You can see discomfort in his eyes at Marty's behaviour, because he wants to avoid offending the Boston readership who he doesn't think Marty cares much about. One night, he turns up at Rezendes' house and you can see on the tip of his tongue he wants to ask him to back off.
Keaton isn't nearly as good as he was in Birdman last year, but he does a solid job anchoring the Spotlight team and bouncing off his subordinates and his superiors. Tucci does a great job with the role of Mitch, the lawyer representing the abuse victims. McAdams likely gets an amazing scene in the movie when she speaks to a startlingly open and honest pedophile priest, the look of horror and disgust bubbling behind her eyes. As she walks away, she sees young boys riding past this pedophile's house. Her face simply makes the scene.
Singer and McCarthey's screenplay, as I've already said, impresses shallowly and deeply. Their words translate to pictures - when a young man tells McAdams that he couldn't even finish his ice-cream, we can actually imagine the young boy paralysed in fear as this disgusting priest fondles him. Even when the words don't seek to create images, they still break your heart, like the gay victim who says the priest was the first person ever to say it was okay. It does much to help us understand how the priests get to their victims.
McCarthey's direction of this film is incredible, helped in no small amount by editor Tom McArdle. The camera lingers on needle damage in an abuse victim for barely a second, but it says so much. I've already mentioned the best scenes and how they are made to be so perfect, but also worth noting is how flawlessly Spotlight pulls off the publication day. The decision to have Matt Carroll drop the paper personally on his neighbours' doorstep is perfect, and its heartbreaking to watch Sacha's grandmother read the article when the movie has told us how faithful she is. McCarthey lets us feel the character's emotions - Sacha's horror, Mike's fury, Robby's guilt and Ben's bitterness - a feat worthy of a Best Director nod in and of itself.
Twist my arm for a flaw, and I'll say that the 9/11 stuff was even more forced than it was in American Sniper last year. I understand it was necessary to show that it coincided and set the story back, but the film breezes past it in about 4 minutes and then we're back on track. "It's been six weeks" complains a character, when barely two minutes have passed since Schreiber and Slattery ordered all hands on deck.
McCarthey's film is so much more than that. It's an experience. The cast are utterly brilliant, the writing is flawless and its a directorial masterpiece. One of the best of 2015.