Spotlight (January 2016)

Official Australian release date: 28/1/16. Viewed: 19/1/16.

Director: Tom McCarthy

Actors: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber

Genre: Drama

Rating: M     

‘Spotlight’ and ‘The Big Short’ will forever be linked, which speaks to their quality – both based on true stories that effected lots of people, both great dramas, both Oscar-nominated films out within weeks of each other. ‘Spotlight’ has some laughs, but not as many as ‘The Big Short’, mostly due to the dark nature of the material – the uncovering of Catholic priests molesting and raping young children, for over four decades.

The Boston Globe investigative journalism team (“Spotlight”) – from when newspapers were still relevant, in 2001 – consisting of Mike (Ruffalo), Sacha (McAdams), Matt (d’Arcy James) and their editor, Robby (Keaton) are tasked with finding out if an accused priest is in fact guilty of child molestation. This comes about when their bosses, Marty (Schreiber, still looking like Sabretooth) – new at the newspaper – & Ben (Slattery) try to shake things up when they smell a cover up. It turns out there’s far more than one priest and one victim – some of the true stories told by the victims as the reporters uncover the facts are truly horrendous and gut-wrenching. Definitely not easy to hear, as you know it has happened in real life, and probably hundreds of thousands of times over the last century.

How Ruffalo is only up for Best Supporting Actor, and not Best Actor, is past me! McAdams, on the other hand, is not that utilised – both due to the ensemble cast, I guess. Keaton and Schreiber are good, as is Tucci as the crusading small-time lawyer, but Ruffalo really steals the show, with his heart on the line and it shows in his performance. It’s really a great film about newspaper reporting, but is told so well and deals with such an important topic that it is actually enjoyable to watch everyone excel – including director McCarthy, who already has form with ‘Win Win’. Certainly not “fun”, but a great film.

Overall: Extremely well done – probably wins Best Picture Oscar.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.