As played with the perfect unobtrusive swagger by Keaton, Robinson is easygoing until he’s not, and the way the actor disappears into this unshowy role is as impressive, if not more so, than the pyrotechnics of his “Birdman” performance.Īs “Spotlight” opens in July 2001, Robinson and the rest of the staff are worried because a new man, the imperturbable Marty Baron (an astute Schreiber), the rare Globe editor not to grow up in Boston, is about to take over the paper. Heading the team, and viewing himself as a kind of player-coach, is Walter Robinson.
It was precisely to tell those kinds of stories that the Boston Globe formed the Spotlight unit, the newspaper’s four-person investigative team that spent upward of a year thoroughly looking into stories.
And they do it without compromising the subtleties of what proved to be a very complicated story. They took a process story, one that is surprisingly accurate about both the physical and psychological ways reporters work, how they tirelessly interview, take endless notes and wade through mountains of material, and he gave it the pace and tension of a police procedural. McCarthy and his team managed to do what many people, including the journalists depicted, thought was almost impossible. McCarthy also works as an actor and, given that one of his best-known roles was as a corrupt journalist in the final season of “The Wire,” there’s something poetic about his being in charge here. McCarthy, best known for exceptional small films like “The Station Agent” and the underappreciated “Win Win,” takes a step up in scope and ambition with this film. First for its depiction of the uncovering of what proved to be an international scandal, and also for the way it quietly but potently illustrates society’s need for old-fashioned investigative journalism, the kind of labor-intensive telling-truth-to-power work that’s increasingly in jeopardy. That led everyone, from director Tom McCarthy (who also co-wrote with former “West Wing” writer Josh Singer) through stars Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery and Stanley Tucci, to make sure their presentation was as realistic and straight ahead as they could make it.Ī key reason for everyone’s concern was that the story “Spotlight” tells is significant twice over. “Spotlight” is mightily impressive not only because of the importance of the story it tells but also because of how much effort and skill went into bringing it to the screen in the best possible way.Īs befits a story about heroic individuals who just happen to be working journalists, the entire “Spotlight” team understood a key tenet of the profession: If you have a good story, over-hyping it will be counterproductive. This is the saga of how the Boston Globe won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for uncovering not only decades of sexual abuse by Catholic priests but also systematic maneuvers by the church’s Boston archdiocese to shield the more than 70 perpetrators.
#Spotlife the film free
SIGN UP for the free Indie Focus movies newsletter > Which couldn’t be further from the truth. Its screenplay is self-effacing, its accomplished direction is intentionally low key, and it encourages its fistful of top actors to blend into an eloquent ensemble.īy unfolding in this quiet yet intensely dramatic way, “Spotlight” fosters the satisfying illusion its powerhouse story is telling itself. “Spotlight” doesn’t call attention to itself.
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