UNITED STATES
MLive
By John Serba | jserba@mlive.com
on November 20, 2015
“Spotlight” is destined to be one of the great film procedurals. A true-story chronicle of The Boston Globe’s towering expose of the Catholic Church’s sexual-abuse scandal, its driving force is due diligence in the service of a moral imperative. In the spirit of its subjects – investigative newspaper reporters – it’s a workmanlike film, focused tightly on details. It’s not flashy, just committed.
Tom McCarthy directs with so much propulsive purpose, he renders the process of four journalists sifting needles from dozens of haystacks engrossing and suspenseful. He assembles a research montage, all quick cuts between libraries and cubicles, data entry and spreadsheets. A reporter makes a cross-town dash to a courthouse to request paperwork. One of the highest-drama moments is a slow zoom out from a speaker phone, the picture literally getting bigger as the source on the other end of the line tells four reporters some key information.
The probability of such moments being suspenseful and thrilling is low, but here we are, eyes on the screen, enraptured. “Spotlight” compels us to pay attention. And you’ll want to. Minutiae is drama when the stakes are high.
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