"Spotlight" Pays Tribute to Journalistic Intensity

By Asher Gelzer-Govatos
Columbia Daily Tribune
November 19, 2015

http://www.columbiatribune.com/arts_life/after_hours/spotlight-pays-tribute-to-journalistic-intensity/article_e64612eb-1fab-5df3-b8f0-5b43de27a74b.html

Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo play two journalists who uncover a scandal in the Catholic Church.

Movies about journalists face an uphill battle in engaging their audience. While the end result of a journalistic investigation might be fascinating, the process of getting there requires frequent repetition of activities that don’t exactly crackle with excitement: fact-gathering, source-checking, data collation.

“Spotlight,” about the Boston Globe investigative team that blew the lid off of the pedophile priest scandal in the Catholic Church, puts these mundane activities front and center but still manages to sizzle with energy.

Propelled along by Howard Shore’s rhythmic score, director Tom McCarthy (“The Visitor,” “Win Win”) methodically ratchets up the tension as the journalists — played by Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams and Brian d’Arcy James — slowly peel back the layers of a cover-up that runs deep into the heart of a Boston institution.

The movie never sensationalizes their labor, instead highlighting many scenes of leg work and file digging that congeal into a love letter to the old-fashioned work of hard journalism.

“Spotlight” has an obsession with work, a tendency that diminishes it somewhat as a movie. McCarthy rarely stops to consider the toll this sort of work might take on the reporters, and in the few instances where their personal lives do get attention, he leans in too hard, leading to some scenes where the emotions feel a bit too amped up. Still, there are advantages to this approach, and focusing on the nuts and bolts helps “Spotlight” avoid exploiting the tragedy at its center.

In the end, the film works best as an actor’s showcase, McCarthy’s restrained style allowing for prime work from its stars. This is ensemble acting working at a high level, with great turns from the four central reporters, as well as Liev Schreiber and John Slattery as their bosses and Stanley Tucci as a lone wolf lawyer out for justice.

“Spotlight” does not break new ground, but it has a workmanlike attention to detail that feels like an appropriate tribute to its subjects.