The plot is all numbers, dates and documents. To make Spotlight work, it needed good actors, and these actors were fun to watch. Mark Ruffalo gave his character an intense, Alsperger's syndrome focus - hands in the pockets, head cocked, with an laser intensity stare. Stanley Tucci is always one of my favorites. Rachel McAdams and John Slattery both provide emotional resonance.
The best scene is when the reporters are gathered around a desk getting good news on the phone, and they all react to it in a different way. It is like a little wordless play.
Remarkably, all this interviewing and phoning and legal fights and paperwork is threaded into a story that is compelling and interesting: great directing by Tom McCarthy. The difficulty with the directing is the primary case for a 4 star rating.
I tend to believe that Catholic priests have been routinely having sex with children for hundreds of years, but happily in the 21st Century, it is being stamped out.
As a lapsed Catholic, I find the whole episode emotional retching. The clerical culture that allowed abuse for centuries isn't apparent to parishioners in the pews. The clerical culture is secretive to keep the illusion going, and it's mission is not congruent with the mission of the Church. In my view the resistance against female priests is also from the clergy, not the laity or the theology.
Directed by:
Written by: Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer
The Visuals:
Rating:
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