Break the Story... Break the Silence

Spotlight - 2016 - Film 

The Spotlight team of The Boston Globe are a small investigative team, they handle sensitive stories that others would not. In 2001, the newspaper has a new editor Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber) who has big ideas on how to make the newspaper better. He leads the Spotlight team into the story that turned into something bigger than they ever imagined. 

After a story is written about one Catholic priest molesting a child, Baron wants to ensure that the Spotlight team investigate even further and see what they can uncover. The team go searching in the old archives, interviewing, and tracking done leads where possible, they stumble across a massive number of priests in the Boston area alone. However, Baron didn't want them to stop there. After more digging, it was time for them to take on the system, and shake the Catholic Church to its core. 

What made this film so good, was the fact that is was real. There was no additional relationship/family fluff to make it into a 'more exciting' movie. Tom McCarthy (director) realised that the story he had, was good enough. There is no need to ruin a TRUE story, with other 'fluffy' action just to make an audience happy. They even included the events of 9/11 which also added to the realistic feel of the film. 

There wasn't one cast member that I could fault. Each one had obviously put meticulous time and effort into their roles. Many had studied there 'real-life' counterparts for the film. This really showed in the way they were acting, especially Mark Ruffalo, he has a well deserved Oscar nomination for this film. 

This film was a lot better than I ever imagined it would be. Someone who does not necessarily enjoy true stories. This film was full of intrigue, interest and realism. 

9/10 

There was very little to fault about this film, the only thing I would have liked was to see more of the priests reaction. Despite them out to take down the system from the top down, we only met the cardinal once, and one priest. Although, rightly so the focus was on the victims. It would have been good to see the reactions of the priests and the clergy.