On January 6, 2002 (just a few months after September 11), Boston Globe published an article about priests who have kidnapped children. The church knew all the time. By the end of the year, Cardinal Cardinal Bernard Low has left his post with an apology (Pope John Paul II gives him a position in the Vatican, which Loe occupies to this day). The Spotlight team won the Pulitzer in 2003 for reports of monstrous secrets. Tom McCarthy's movie tracks the months that journalists have done to get to the cloaked facts. Marti Byron (Liver Schriber) is the new editor of the newspaper, a silent and restrained foreigner in Boston's closed society, who does not worry that assigning the spotlight to the team will cause problems. Michael Rezendis (Mark Ruffalo), who is energetic enough and obsessed with his work to inspire the strength of Walter (Michael Keaton) and his colleagues Sasha (Rachel McAdams) and Matt (Brian d'Arce) to continue with even when they risk turning the entire city against themselves.
Spotlight is one of the best films for investigative journalism and is deservedly compared to magnificent examples such as "All Presidential Army" and "Zodiac." The unpredictability with which the story is presented creates the false impression that "Pff, not much, looks like a TV movie." In this way, the main quality of the film is interpreted as a minus, in the name of some unconscious desire for excellence and melodrama. The film adheres to the facts and yes, it is not showy, no ten-minute footage and innovative operator work, but given the story it tells, its approach is perfect. It's easier to note what this movie does not, what mistakes and shortcuts it does not allow. The biggest underwater stone that surrounds you is the pathetic boom, but they dared, they changed the story, these great men and women. There is no scene that irritates with excessive heroisation. We see a team that goes every day to the office and does their job. The movie is so good that we can imagine what has happened to these people before and what awaits them in the near future. It's like letting them peep out of their window.
But how refreshing and respectful we are to the audience is the decision not to see the private lives of the characters, their wives, children, dogs and so on ... Mild hints such as a ring, commentary by the way or a frame away from someone taking their children to school are enough, to outline their everyday life, without annoying details or even worse - melodrama. The streets, houses and neighborhoods are shot so that the suggestion of proximity and neighborhood creates a closed Boston in which no one would talk to a stranger. The music of Howard Shore, relying on a piano, in the minimalist style of Ludovico Enyudi, further enhances the atmosphere with the necessary pulse and energy. A whole universe of desks, folders, archives, old computers, and living rooms in which work is done that do not resemble a movie decor. When the bent Mark Ruffalo writes something on a piece of paper while talking on the phone and then goes to check the system, I believe he does. Or when Keaton talks to the team, looking at them with a weary but careful look, I believe he has worked long in this place, perhaps too long. Each of them brings different energies and adds shades without the silly "characteristic features" inherent in the weaker dramaturgy. They look like real people who carry out their duties. And this deep authenticity, together with the simple history and the moral complexity of the issues it raises, will make the film interesting even after a decade.
Spotlight reveals a society that keeps its monsters in the wardrobe and does not let them into the light because it fears they will ruin the whole house. And the monsters - the fornicating priests - are villains not shown on the screen. The only one we see is friendly and not ashamed of his actions, and he was being abused as a child. This mixture of disgust and regret is the blood flowing into the heart of the movie. Nothing is so simple. It's never been. Problems do not start today and will not be resolved tomorrow. The roots are deep in faith, far back in human history when the small gears that drive the system today are formed. Required system. For millions of people in the world who, with its collapse, would lose themselves. The problem of child abuse, as one of the characters in the film mentions, is not only the physical consequences, but also the spiritual ones. Loss of faith at such a fragile age throws a far more shadow over the future of the victims. The lies on which they built the house from cards sooner or later collapse and then many fail to endure the indifference of the world that awaits them.
As societal critique, Spotlight reminds of Winterberg's "Hunt". There, the society was making a mistake of suspicion while doing it in the name of a higher moral standard imposed by an invisible world. Ouster the alleged scary or hide it in the closet until the children find it. Both are made by choice. Adverse reactions of conspicuous but primitive consciousness. And yes, the mistakes themselves are ugly, but the denial of change and the all-out loser, which raises new and new sacrifices, is what deserves. Spotlight does not answer. He gives an example. And that's enough.
