SPOTLIGHT: No More Silent Nights

Spotlight is a throwback to the golden age of seventies cinema. It is a whip smart tribute to investigative journalism, rooted in character and grounded in a world where the most special effect is human emotion. Spotlight follows the tireless efforts of a team of reporters from The Boston Globe to uncover the sexual abuse perpetrated by far too many Roman Catholic priests. The most disturbing revelations in this true story involve the systematic cover up by Cardinal Bernard Law and the Boston Archdiocese.   It raises appropriately righteous anger at such appalling spiritual abuse. Spotlight also revels in small moments, incremental victories, that pack a powerful dramatic wallop. It glorifies hard work, team play, and doing your job every single day.

Director Tom McCarthy offers the spotlight to a talented ensemble led by Michael Keaton as Walter ‘Robby’ Robinson, the Boston born team editor. His all star reporters include Mark Ruffalo as determined lead writer, Mike Rezendes, Rachel Adams as neighborhood beat reporter Sacha Pfeiffer and Brian d’Arcy James as fact finding researcher Matt Carroll.   They are empowered to dig into the potentially disturbing story by new Globe publisher, Marty Baron (Liev Schrieber).   As a Jewish outsider within Roman Catholic Boston, Baron challenges the Spotlight team to investigate long buried charges against Father John Geoghan.

What begins as an isolated case becomes a well-funded cover up involving lawyers, victims, and maybe even a Cardinal.   Spotlight revels in the rigors of reporting, especially in an era when phone books and directories were still tools of the investigative trade. While some knock on doors, others create spread-sheets.   Spotlight is about micro and macro stories, the patterns that emerge from hundreds of seemingly small, reprehensible decisions.   It deals with sealed documents, court orders, and the necessity of dramatic timing especially for a beleaguered newspaper business.

Having moved from character actor to distinguished director of Sundance Film Festival darlings like The Station Agent and The Visitor, director and co-writer Tom McCarthy ensures that each part is expertly cast. Actors make an impression despite minimal screen time. Everyone’s turn in the spotlight proves revelatory, from surviving victims like Phil Saviano, old school lawyers like Jim Sullivan, to retired priests like Ronald Paquin, still attempting to justify his abuses.   Stanley Tucci shines as the hardscrabble lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian, who defends victims with dogged determination.   Spotlight harkens back to classic Sidney Lumet movies where every one gets a moment.   The cast underplays effectively, like the low profile reporters simply doing their job.   Spotlight demonstrates the power of an accomplished ensemble, comfortably holding up their corner of the story.

Spotlight will be favorably compared to All the President’s Men. It is an unabashed celebration of the necessity of the Fourth Estate, but it is also a resonate reflection upon institutions of all kinds.   When Cardinal Bernard Law welcomes Marty Baron to Boston, he talks about institutions working together. Shouldn’t they seek the welfare of the city via cooperation?   When Marty decides to deepen the investigation, he is asked, “The church thinks in centuries. Do you have the resources to take it on?”   Are some institutions too big to challenge?

A more basic question confronting locals like Robby Robinson involves loyalty to the city, “Whose town is this?”   What does it mean to take it back? For Robby, it means asking hard questions at the parochial school that raised him.   For others, it requires protecting the Mother Church whose steeples still dominate the skyline but, at what cost?   Characters actors Paul Guilfoyle and Jamey Sheridan show us how well intended citizens can prop up sexual predators.   Like most Participant Productions, Spotlight aims to simultaneously enlighten and entertain.   It disturbs our peace in powerful and personal ways.

Spotlight asks, “Aren’t we all somewhat complicit in our institutions’ actions?”   When another school shooting makes headlines, aren’t we judged by our collective inability to enact effective gun control policies?   When the American government engages in drone strikes, don’t we share in the responsibility for the body count?  Spotlight reminds us that it takes a village to abuse a child, to look the other way, and pass the problem along because “nobody wants to cuff a priest.”   Questions of “Where were you?” and “What took you so long?” are not easily answered.   Spotlight challenges us to make sure there are no more silent nights for victims of abuse.