The Paper

Excellent journalism films are a rare breed and almost nonexistent in this day and age with the internet/social media trumping the immediate need for newspapers and the likes of the dogged investigative reporters employed by them.  “All the Presidents Men,” “The Insider” and “Zodiac” are signature examples of the genre in that they worked both as cannily structured exposes as well as exciting thrillers in spite of the facts being known beforehand.  They also made heroes out of reporters which seems so quaint in our current digital age.  But it’s no small feat to create a compelling film that exists mostly within the confines of mundane office buildings and libraries.  When a true story is very much at the forefront of the piece the effects can make for gripping cinema.  I’m happy to report that Todd McCarthy’s (“The Visitor”) terrifically nuanced and impressively understated “Spotlight” is such a piece.

The film is set in 2001 just as The Boston Globe is receiving a new editor in chief, Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber, “Ray Donovan”) from Miami, to find ways to gain back and hopefully increase the progressively less than interested local subscriber base.  Marty recruits The Spotlight investigative team lead by player-coach Robbie Robinson (Michael Keaton) to probe details concerning a sex scandal within the confines of the Catholic Church that came and went with little to no fanfare.  Robinson and his team, which includes the likes of Mike Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo “Foxcatcher”), Sacha Pfieffer (Rachel McAdams, “Aloha”) and Matt Carroll (Brian d’Arcy James, “Smash”), start digging around in old case files to discover piece by piece that a number of child molestations by priests have been hiding in plain sight for years.  Robinson, who was initially skeptical of finding much of anything substantial now finds his team has to probe further with the investigations that uncover The Catholic Church’s attempts to conceal the ever evolving larger scandal involving numerous victims (potentially up to 90 in Boston alone).  The movie fascinates with just how each reporter is personally affected by their unrelenting pursuit of getting the story to the public in spite of encountering various public officials attempting to shut down their efforts.

With incredibly intriguing fact based material at his disposal Boston native McCarthy (along with co-screenwriter Josh Singer, “The Fifth Estate”) shrewdly crafts a procedural that hums along like a thriller.  The importance of finding the truth with one piece of evidence at a time and how various public officials are conditioned to react against the community being informed of it is what raises the stakes from the outset.  And the screenplay here is taut enough to hook the viewer without the likes of any flashy film trickery.  The scenes where the investigators are meeting with the victims in particular are so matter of fact and slow burning that they seem as if they were taken from a documentary.  It also puts a human face on the larger scandal being uncovered and the alarming reactions conveyed by each reporter are never histrionic which aids considerably to “Spotlight’s” lingering impact.  This is also, as I’m sure McCarthy had intended, very much a Boston movie getting the atmosphere just right with the working class milieu contrasting nicely with sinister dealings in the upper echelon of the city where Keaton’s Robinson in particular has some increasingly heated confrontations. 

Speaking of Michael Keaton, it’s great to see him in topical films again revitalized post “Birdman” and providing the stalwart Robinson with a keen intelligence that goes on high alert when faced with threats masked by civility.  Ruffalo brings a jumpy intensity to Rezendes in contrast that reveals the restless spirit of the cause driving the team.  He gets the closest the film comes to an awards bait monologue towards the end but by that point it fits organically within the story and is delivered by this ever magnetic actor with an unassuming poignancy.  But truth be told everyone in this cast delivers.  Outside of the journalists there is deputy manager of the globe Ben Bradlee Jr. (John Slattery, “Mad Men”), victims’ attorney Mitchell Garabedian (Stanley Tucci, “The Imposters”) and slick and serpentine opposing attorney Eric Macleish (Billy Crudup, “Almost Famous”) who all find ways to create vivid moments that illuminate the unfolding story rather than detract from it.  If I was pressed to pick my favorite though I would have to go with the cool and calculating Schreiber, long regarded as one of the best American stage actors, who doesn’t get film parts this good often enough.  He brings a quiet integrity to the proceedings that never attempts to garner attention unto itself but is integral to Baron whose sole reason for being is assembling facts and telling people the truth (no matter the personal cost). 

The last scenes in “Spotlight” are sublime and in a way a celebration of the time when journalists could still be seen as heroes.  The story has now broken to the public and the scrappy reporters at the Globe are picking up phone calls left and right of people willing to tell their part of a story that most continue now onto a bigger stage.  And here’s to a film that’s brave enough to show us what these reporters did to get the public their story first.