Spotlight

Spotlight is a movie based off of true events. It is written by Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy and directed by Tom McCarthy. Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Brian D'Arcy James, Liev Schreiber, and Stanley Tucci make up the amazing cast.

Summary: Spotlight is about the uncovering of the massive scandal of child-molestation in Catholic churches primarily within Boston. The Boston Globe has a section called Spotlight and it is where Mike Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Sacha Pfieffer (Rachel McAdams), Matt Carroll (Brian D'Arcy James) , and Walter 'Robby' Robinson (Michael Keaton) work. The Boston Globe gets a new boss (Live Schreiber) who meets with the heads of each department and tells Robby to do a more in depth investigation on an article by Eileen McNamara about the Geoghan case, which is about a Catholic priest molesting children. In order to do a proper investigation the paper will have to go to court to get the seal lifted off of the Geoghan documents; it is pointed out that people would consider this suing the Catholic church. Robby tells his team about the investigation; Mike says he will meets with the lawyer who defended the victims in the Geoghan case. When he visits the lawyer, Mr. Garabedian (Stanely Tucci), he is told that he can't even take notes of their conversation because the church is trying to disbar him. Mike asks is he could speak to some of the victims and Mr. Garabedian says he will think about it. A brings old newspaper clipping to the Spotlight office on past reports of the case; Sacha finds out through the clippings about an organization for survivors of priest molestation called S.N.A.P. Matt finds another clipping that talks about how a priest in Ohio was caught molesting children and moved to a parish in Boston where he did the same thing. They found a pattern, when a priest was discovered molesting children from his parish they would move him to another. Spotlight later meets with the leader of SNAP to figure out why the victims never told anyone. Mike goes back to Garabedian who says his clients don't want to be in the press but once Mike tells him its a Spotlight sorry, a bigger piece, Garabedian tells him to come back later that week. Sacha gets in tough with some of the victims and talks to them about their experience with the abuse in the Catholic church. When the Spotlight team meets to compare notes Mike states that the priests target kids from low income families with absent fathers who are in need of attention. They target mostly boys because the priest's actual sexuality has no basis on molesting kids; its a form of control. Mike and Robby make their way to the basement where Matt is looking at the annual directories of the priests in Boston; they say where each one is at any given time during the year. They notice that when a priest has been accused of molestation it will say "sick leave" or "emergency response" when in fact they are being moved to another parish to cover up the scandal. The team discovers that at least 6% of priests will molest a child, and out of 1,500 priests in Boston that means that there are 90 who have or are doing so. The tam compiles all their data together and have 87 priests in Boston that have molested a child. They are able to verify that all 87 priests have sone the crimes they were accused of. After more investigating and hoops to jump through the team is able to write the article and expose the Catholic church and the priests it was protecting. The morning after the article is sent out to be sold Matt and Sacha go into the office to see if they will get any calls about it even though it is a Sunday and they have off. Mike and Robby walk into the office a little bit later to find Matt and Sacha running around answering phones. Matt tells them that they are getting almost all positive responses and even some victims who have tips for them. The ending titles indicate that cover-ups were revealed all the way to the Vatican. Dozens of countries are listed where victims have come out about experience sexual abuse from Catholic priests.

Review: THIS IS A MUST SEE MOVIE!! I cannot stress this enough. It doesn't matter what religion you are because this type of abuse can happen in any type of church. I know some people who are Catholic and say that they had trouble watching this film because this is the religion they were raised in and to see it in such bad lighting shook them to their core. However, I must say that sticking your head in the sand about this issue will not help solve this problem. As a film in itself it was gripping and intense throughout. Close attention needs to be paid because the names and dates can get confusing. The actors mastered their characters and did subtle things to remind the audience of how human they are. I give this film nothing but positive reviews. If you have not seen or heard of it watch it as soon as you can and become more educated about this issue as a whole.