Spotlight: Heroic Journalism

Sometimes, being a hero doesn't require a cape and super powers. Instead, it requires a notebook, research skills, and dogged perseverance.

Spotlight follows the team of reporters at the Boston Globe who broke the story of Catholic priests molesting young children in the Boston area, uncovering a nationwide (and worldwide) conspiracy of secrecy and guilt. It is not a pleasant topic and this is not an easy film to watch. But it is an incredibly compelling movie that demonstrates the hard work and frankly unglamorous skill that is required to diligently report on these events.

Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Brian D'Arcy James, John Slattery, and Liev Schrieber play the various members of the Spotlight team. It's an all-star line-up that guarantees excellent performances, and none of the actors disappoint. We get to see every facet of these characters - their connection to Boston, their feelings about the Church, and their determination to give a voice to the families and children who suffered in silence for decades. They seem like reserved men and women, but towards the end of the film, as the damning evidence builds, we get to see the strain that this job puts on their lives and their steadfast refusal to back down. They continue to stumble in the dark, until the light goes on.

The score by Howard Shore is an insistent marvel that ratchets up the tension in the background and keeps you focused as the reporters get closer to the truth and uncover horrifying details about this pathology of abuse. Directed by Tom McCarthy and co-written by him and Josh Singer, this a tightly scripted and thrilling film in the vein of All the President's Men. It contains all the excitement of uncovering the truth while hiding none of the tedious labor that goes into fact-finding and research. Whether the reporters are poring over years' worth of church records, conducting interviews all over the country, or taking painstaking notes, this is a thoughtful and meticulous account of journalistic excellence.

Although we know how this story ends, Spotlight is a story about the process of uncovering the truth. The final moments are sobering, and while we can take pride in our heroes' success, that pride is tinged with some guilt that this story was not uncovered a decade earlier. The Boston Globe won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for the nearly 600 articles they published about this scandal. They made the world sit up and take notice, and now this film is ensuring the world takes notice once again.