Spotlight * * * * 1/2

No fights, no guns, no car chases, no sex (well none that you see, or would ever want to see), no romance, hardly any laughs, but it’s one of the best dramas I’ve seen in awhile.  
In 2001 a group of reporters who worked for a section of the Boston Globe known as “Spotlight” got wind of Catholic priests sexually abusing children in their care.  To the church’s ongoing shame it has since been revealed that Boston isn’t the only place where this kind of betrayal and horror has been taking place.

The "Spotlight" team at the Boston Globe were in the vanguard of exposing it.  Apparently over fifty percent of Boston’s population is  Catholic which meant that not only was there a disproportionate amount of candidates in that city, but there was also a stalwart of resistance to their investigations.  

Investigative journalism isn’t always exciting and it can often lead to dead-ends. Not everyone welcomes a journalist wanting to ask a bunch of questions. This finely paced, excellent drama shows us just how long it took and why it was successful. It was a time when the editors of the paper knew that half baked stories are of little value.They wanted a story that was irrefutable. As they uncover disturbing facts they have to face not only what the church knew, but what the police, the judiciary, the media and even some parents knew.

Mark Ruffalo is one of my favourite actors he is consistently good and he certainly rises to the occasion in this film, as do just about everyone else in this thoroughly engrossing drama.

One of the most convincing, disturbing - and admirable - newspaper films you are likely to see.