Spotlight
DVD
Review
by Kam Williams
Best Picture
Oscar-Nominee Released on DVD
The
Catholic Church has a very checkered past regarding its handling of
the rampant molestation of children by the clergy. And Pope Francis
recently tarnished that image further by issuing a plenary pardon to
any pedophile priests willing to confess their sins.
This means
the Church is likely to remain a safe haven for its protected
perverts. Meanwhile, their traumatized victims continue to be
frustrated in their quest for compensation or just to expose the
identities of their abusers. That's because the Church hierarchy has
routinely opted to enforce a white collar of silence whereby serial
rapists in its ranks are merely reassigned to a different parish
rather than defrocked and reported to the authorities.
Directed by
Oscar-nominee Tom McCarthy (for this movie and Up), Spotlight has
been nominated for a half-dozen Academy Awards, including Best
Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Mark Ruffalo) and Best Supporting
Actress (Rachel McAdams). The film focuses on one of those rare
occasions where the truth regarding pedophile priests did manage to
come to light.
In that
instance, Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber), the editor of the Boston
Globe, was willing to look into the widespread rumors of a Catholic
cover-up of molestation stretching back decades. . After all, as a
Jew who was new to town, he wasn't as awed as the locals by the
powerful Boston Archdiocese being run with an iron fist by Cardinal
Bernard Francis Law (Len Cariou).
So, the
intrepid editor gave his approval to a quartet of reporters
interested in launching a deeper investigation. Code-named
"Spotlight," the crack team comprised of Mike Rezendes
(Ruffalo), Robby Robinson (Michael Keaton), Sacha Pfeiffer (McAdams)
and Matt Carroll (Brian d'Arcy James) researched the story for
several years.
On January
6, 2002, they finally began publishing their findings in a series of
damning articles that exposed Cardinal Law as an enabler offering
protection for cronies he knew to be guilty as sin. For, the inquiry
had unearthed mountains of evidence that the archdiocese was not only
aware of about a hundred kids who'd been assaulted by numerous
different men of the cloth.
But Church
attorneys had repeatedly run interference for the perpetrators by
settling claims out of court while simultaneously swearing the
plaintiffs to secrecy via non-disclosure agreements. Consequently,
the repeat offenders were free to move around from parish-to-parish,
destroying additional youngsters' lives in the process.
Overall,
Spotlight amounts to a scathing indictment of the Catholic Church as
little more than a meat market racket masquerading as a religious
institution. Though not exactly a date night or a feel-good flick,
the film nevertheless comes highly recommended for a few reasons.
First, it
relates an important reminder about the salutary value of
investigative reporting in a Digital Age when Google search engine
optimization would assign a higher page ranking to a picture of a
cute cat than to a story of such social relevance.. Second, the
compelling screenplay unfolds in gripping fashion and without resort
to rehashing salacious details in a manner bordering on
re-victimization. And third, the A-list cast turns in a plethora of
dynamic performances, most notably Ruffalo, McAdams, Michael Keaton,
John Slattery and Stanley Tucci.
An
iconoclastic drama that makes a convincing argument in support of the
incendiary axiom, "The closer to Church, the further from God."
Excellent (4
stars)
Rated R for profanity, sexual
references and mature themes
Running time: 129 minutes
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Home Entertainment
To see a trailer for Spotlight, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg5zSVxx9JM
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