Spotlight Review

What I liked: This was an excellent drama. It won best picture at the Academy Awards last year. Like The Artist, I am in full agreement with the Academy. I like fun movies, I liked to be entertained; entertain me well enough and I forgive most problems and go home happy. Generally, that is the end of it. 2-3 hours of fun, I think about it long enough to write a review and move on. Spotlight is a reminder that film can be substantial, something meant to be thought about. Spotlight is a great drama but it achieves more. Spotlight tells the story of the investigative journalists who broke the story of the Catholic priest child abuse scandal from the early 2000's. The writers do an impressive job presenting the events almost like a dramatized documentary. They avoid the low hanging fruit of villainizing individuals (it is still clear that there are individuals who will have much to answer for) or organized religion and approach the much harder questions. Questions about shared responsibility in a community, about individual failings and oversight, about the relationship of religion, faith, and culture. I was impressed with the accuracy of the script. After watching the film I went back and did some fact checking, the characters and events were overwhelmingly faithfully represented. The characters were complex; they all had things that they cared deeply about and personal challenges associated with participating in the investigation. All the main journalists were lapsed Catholics, in one scene two of them talk about how working on the story affected their attitudes toward their faith and their relationships with their family. This navigation of something terrible and things that one holds dear is really the main thing I remember about when the story actually broke. People trying to figure out how to fit the different parts of their lives back together. By the end most of these story arcs remain unresolved, a reminder that this event continues to shape society’s and individual’s attitudes toward and relationships with religion. Throughout the film as the reporters are investigating, people keep being uncooperative saying “we sent you all this information before and you did nothing, why would we do this again?” Steeped as I am in spy movies, I thoroughly expected the reveal at the end to be a massive evil conspiracy that had prevented the information from ever getting to the heroic journalists. The truth was more jarring, a message about missed opportunities to do good and times when we can’t see the forest for the trees. I appreciated the courage of the creative team in addressing sensitive and complex questions and their reserve in not providing the answers. Like the real event some verdicts are very clear, but what to do with the aftermath is left to the viewer. For all this I found the film’s tone hopeful. Yes, individuals are flawed and opportunities are missed, societal inertia hides unpleasant truths and opposes correction, but the world can and must be better. The first step in that is thinking about where we are and recognizing what must change.

What I didn’t: Being meticulously based on real events, this film falls into a special category. I can’t really change the plot, no matter how much I wish I could. That’s part of the point, everyone wishes they could change this chapter of history and part of the tragedy is that it took so long for that change to come. There are characters I dislike, there are questions that are hard, the film does an excellent job of taking those parts I don’t like and using them to build on, to guide the audience toward the resolution of the plot and the story arcs and to the beginning of some self reflection.

Who should watch this? This is an important movie like Hotel Rwanda or Schindler’s list, though less emotional than either. The subject matter is not for everyone. There is strong language, not more than many action movies, but with the added element of all terms being used entirely accurately.

Would I watch it again? Yes.