Spotlight

If you haven't already seen the disclaimer about this film from the post earlier today then make sure that you read this part first. This film is about the uncovering of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Boston by a newspaper. This film was not selected to victimise or have a go at any Catholics, it is a film about an important topic that is not Okay but if you don't want to watch it then don't. On this blog and now I am speaking for myself, I pick films of all kinds, political, horror, thriller, romance, comedy, action, sci-fi, fantasy, children's films, classics, silent movies, musicals etc and I wont shy away from a film because of it's sensitive topic, instead I will just skip over anything of a disturbing nature that I don't like to watch. You don't watch any sex or abuse in this film, it's just the reporters trying to uncover the truth.

Now that's done, let's move on to the actual film. Mark Ruffalo (Begin Again, Now You See Me, The Avengers Assemble), Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada, Gambit), Michael Keaton (Birdman, Batman), Rachel McAdams (Sherlock Holmes, Midnight In Paris), Liev Schreiber (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), John Slattery (Captain America: Civil War) and Brian D'Arcy James (SMASH) lead the line as reporters for 'The Globe' as a team called Spotlight. What they uncover is what everyone knew and they end up saying as much- everyone knew about it but no one did anything because they were priests. The church had a lot of power and covered up everything but in the end the reporters and the law managed to uncover the cases of at least 87 priests abusing people in America. Yes the topic is unpleasant but no one deserves to be abused and if they are then they shouldn't have to bury it- people kill themselves over this kind of thing.

The film itself was a lot better than I thought that it would be. I had prepared myself for the worst but it didn't come. Go in to knowing the topic, it might make you feel a little uncomfortable or it may not at all. What is good about this film is that the reporters aren't particularly unsympathetic. Sometimes reporters will do anything for a story or will ask questions that aren't particularly thoughtful but not with this film, this film was well thought out and sensitive. The only people who were upset by the reporters where the people who had tried to cover it up. Yes the topic can be uncomfortable but that can't always be helped, the truth hurts and it is important to try and uncover it but there has to be a limit and it was dealt with very well. What this film also managed to avoid doing was becoming opinionated or one sided. Ultimately this was a discovery into the truth and they were aware that there had been a few cases but at no point in the film was there any sort of hatred towards the church or even the priests mentioned (who I believe were all made up). You have to tell a film like this from a neutral pair of eyes without trying to get too involved in everything and it did just that.

Spotlight was released last year so it did give a little space between the massive scandals that dominated the news for at least half a year and the film coming out. Everything was handled delicately and I am a little unsure as to why a film wasn't made earlier, it wasn't that the world didn't know earlier, they did but it wasn't until someone finally decided to go public with it that it suddenly became acceptable to make a film about it- we all knew that there was something going on and a film may have helped it to all come out a lot earlier than it did but they must have their reasons for it.

I don't want to bring in a personal opinion about the topic of the film, instead I want to talk about the performance. Look at the cast, a lot of well known names there for all different types of characters and reasons but it takes a lot to play a reporter well. Reporters are often portrayed somewhat fairly accurately in a similar way to the portrayal of Russel Crowe in 'State of Play'. This was not the same portrayal. this was about knowing where the line was, fighting for everything by using the law but keeping the trust of your sources. They showed a completely different side to reporters who just managed to change almost everyone's opinions of reporters a little. A massive well done to them and to this film. I wont need to watch it again but I am glad that I have watched it.