TIFF 2015 Review: SpotlightPosted by Wilson Morales
September 14, 2015
A shoo-in to be considered one of the best of the Toronto International Film Festival as well of the one of the best films of 2015, Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight brings to mind anyone who fondly remembers “All The President’s Men” and how well executed the story and acting was in that film. With an ensemble cast (Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci, Brian d’Arcy James, and Billy Crudup) where no one has a lead role, journalism is at the forefront in telling a true story that needed to be presented a solid manner where the usual Hollywood antics or grandstanding are kept at bay.
Set in Boston around 2001, a group of journalists from the Boston Globe, led by Walter “Robby” Robinson (Michael Keaton) are part of the investigative unit known as Spotlight. It’s basically the “60 Minutes” of print. The group works on a story with no timetable when the story will be publish. With a new boss (Liev Schreiber) at the helm, he wants Spotlight to focus on a story that no one seems to be concentrating on – the decades long abuse of boys by the priests in their community. Seems that not only did the church know about it, but so did Cardinal Bernard Law (Len Cariou) and steps were taken to shield these molesters from prosecution.
Through a series of interviews with witnesses and victims, Walter and his team, Michael Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams), and Matt Carroll (Brian d’Arcy James) seek to expose this atrocity of crimes that went unpublished. To do so, they must go up against the Catholic Church and friends who don’t want to see this story told. As time goes by without an endgame, other events like 9/11 start to take its toll on the writers as they uncover more victims but no with tangible evidence to go to print.
One of the intriguing and fascinating things about the film is that, although you know the outcome since it’s based on facts, Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer’s script kept the story as a thriller. They injected the hurdles and emotional conflicts these reporters had to endure while pursuing the truth. While it’s an ensemble film, if you had to pluck out individuals who stood out, one can make a case for Keaton and Ruffalo, who both show more emotion as the film progressed. At the same time, it’s also great to see how journalism was done without the major use of computers and cell phones. Getting the story right is more important than getting the story out to beat out the competition. Simply a gem of a film.
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