REVIEW: SPOTLIGHT

Fresh off his Oscar-winning film, Michael Keaton co-stars in Tom McCarthy's excellent journalistic drama about the Boston Globe's investigation into a massive ring of child-molesting priests. I say co-stars because this is truly an ensemble piece; though Mark Ruffalo's Mike Rezendes and Keaton's "Robby" Robinson probably have the most screen time, it is refreshing to see a film so dedicated to the delivering of its story that there is no main character. The main character is the horrifying tale brought to life by the year's best ensemble and diamond-solid screenplay.

The film eases you into the subject matter, though. It doesn't startle you with a priest wagging a finger towards an alter boy: the subject is serious and the film too grave to wander into such territory. Tom McCarthy (who also wrote the story to Up, how cool is that) approaches the film journalistically. He gives you its key players: in this case Rezendes, Robinson and Sacha Pfieffer (Rachel McAdams), who head the Globe's Spotlight feature, an in-depth look at a particular bit of news that takes them months of investigation. There's a never a serious dip into their emotional lives, besides the stress and weight the Spotlight story has burdened them with. I don't know the internal hopes and dreams and lives of any of these trio of people, but I can get a sense of their character and moral compass. I'm going to attempt to be apolitical here and say that the Catholic Church was like a mideval moat, both in its dated methods and seemingly impenetrable wall it tried to build up against the team. They didn't want their scandal swept under the rug, they wanted it buried at the bottom of the sea. On an interesting note, Catholic feedback of this movie has been very positive. Hmm.

No one particularly stands out, and I believe that was McCarthy's goal. There's Oscar-worthy acting aplenty, but it never eclipses the story that is trying to be told. The showiest role comes from Stanley Tucci's lawyer Garabedian. By stating he never married because of his commitment to his work we can see what kind of a man he is, and can forgive his terse talks with Rezendes and altogether dismissive manner. The only standouts of the otherwise methodical approach to storytelling are when Pfieffer bluntly asks a priest if he molested any boys when he was in the church, and his reply sickened me to the core. Its quotes that (I'm assuming are real) bother me so much, that people like that actually exist and justify their means by religion.

The music underscores the mood and the movement of its subjects greatly, and neither it nor cinematography or wacky editing choices or anything you could typically find in a Wes Anderson movie where style can sometimes overpower story, can be found here. It's nearly frustrating, because at times you can feel a little bogged down in the procedure, like this is an extremely well-written episode of Law & Order: SVU. But the Oscar-caliber acting and direction from McCarthy quickly shoves this away, and you're left with one of the finest movies of the year: one that'll anger, disgust you, and make you cheer if only for a little while.

Rating: 3.5/4 stars