Director: Tom McCarthy Cast: Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Brian d’Arcy James, Stanley Tucci
A group of investigative journalists at the Boston Globe spend a year following the trail of the Catholic Church’s abuse of children. They uncover years of institutionalised cover-ups from within the Church as well as its supporters, eventually leading to the revelation of abuse all over the world. A true story.
Nominated for 6 Oscars, I thought Spotlight would be worth a go. While it was interesting, I wouldn’t say it’s an Oscar-worthy film. I enjoyed it, and I didn’t know all the details of the investigation before so I definitely came away having learnt something- however the filmmakers can’t get credit for the plot since they didn’t come up with it, so no points for that. Mark Ruffalo is really good in this- I think he’s often quite underrated as an actor, he can do a wide variety of different kinds of roles or genres but he never seems to be the star. Michael Keaton’s renaissance following last year’s Birdman also continues.
However, it’s a good film and I’m glad I saw it, but it’s wasn’t a showstopper. It’s pretty slow, although I suppose it would have been hard to cut out certain details otherwise it simply wouldn’t make sense. Now I’ve seen it, I don’t think I need to see it again- I’ve got all I can from it (mainly the story) from the first viewing.
It’s definitely a thinking film and you need to be awake to be able to sit through it and understand everything that’s going on. Obviously the subject matter isn’t by any means lightweight, and I think to enjoy it you’d have to be in the right mood- don’t just pick it because you want something to watch, pick it because you want to know that specific story.
3 stars
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