Movie Review | Spotlight (Lights, Camera, Action!) Page 1

Movie Review | Spotlight (Lights, Camera, Action!)

Spotlight (UK Rating: 15)

In the run-up to the Golden Globes, one film title was on everybody's lips: Spotlight. Everything changed after the ceremony since it walked away empty-handed and the momentum shifted to Leonardo Di Caprio fighting a bear and eating buffalo liver in The Revenant. The current front runner, however, is The Big Short although, with a month to go before the Oscars ceremony, that could easily change again - and again.
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Released in UK cinemas on Friday, 29th January, Spotlight is the quieter, less showy film. Based on true events in 2001, it focuses on when the investigative team from The Boston Globe's Spotlight section were asked to dig deeper into a story that had been almost overlooked. Reports of child abuse by priests in the city had only made that newspaper's inside pages, yet the journalists uncovered a scandal that was far bigger than they could have ever imagined, and on top of that, it had been systematically covered up by the Church.

Spotlight replaces the high drama of some of the other Oscar contenders with a quiet dignity and a determination to tell its story, and tell it straight. In that way, it rather resembles the journalists involved. It's also a story that affected just about everybody in Boston, where the Church had enormous power and influence and where its buildings dominated the skyline and stood on almost every street corner. As the staff at The Globe lives locally, it affects them and their families, as well. Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams) hasn't the heart to tell her grandmother about the story until it appears in print: the old lady goes to mass three times a week. Her reaction when the article appears is a small but pivotal moment in the film. The foundation of her life has turned out to be tainted and she's been robbed of her faith. What can she believe in?

There are no thrills a minute in Spotlight, but it's enormously absorbing, fascinating, and thought-provoking. It's also one of those rare instances where it's impossible to pick out individual strengths or, indeed, weaknesses. The reason is that the film meshes together into a very complete and satisfying whole. There's no star turn either, because the cast makes an impressive ensemble: Mark Ruffalo, playing against type as journalist Mike Rezendes, the most extrovert of the team; Liev Schreiber as The Globe's editor, who appears to be a cold fish but is a principled and determined leader; Rachel McAdams as the compassionate Sacha, torn between pursuing the story and her family loyalties, as well as Michael Keaton, Stanley Tucci, John Slattery on the books. Every single one of them is terrific.
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10/10

Masterpiece - Platinum Award

There's no other word for Spotlight than 'masterpiece' - outstanding on all fronts. It has a serious issue at its heart and tells it with integrity, skill, and compassion. Regardless of whether it wins the awards it so richly deserves, it's still a mature, intelligent, and genuinely unmissable piece of cinema.

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jesusraz 06.03.2016#1

I actually cried at the end of this...it was so shocking what happened, and how badly it was dealt with even after things were revealed.

However, despite the fact that the film was really well done, it was no masterpiece, by any means. Parts of it were extremely flat and it didn't really engage to the point where my wife actually fell asleep. It was a typical Hollywood take on a controversial subject, i.e. playing it safe.