REVIEW

It's hard to believe that one of the films bombarded with praises and prestigious awards 2015 came from director Tom McCharty having done a big blunder with the comedy The Cobbler 2014 ago. Yes, it may not be the fault of McCharty, maybe the infamous dominance of Adam Sandler's 'bad' tarnished his smooth track record after two glossy indie dramas of Station Agent (2003) and The Visitor (2007) plus writing stories for animated Pixar, Up. But lucky McCharty is still trusted to work on a large project like Spotlight that turned out not to play games.

Adapted from a true story, Spotlight refers to the name of an 'elite' journalist team part of the renowned newspaper company The Boston Globe that specializes in deep journalistic investigations of under-radar social issues in the United States. This live action version is based on one of the Spotlight editions that once scandalized America 2002 when their investigation led to the disclosure of the biggest sexual abuse scandal in Boston involving pastors and high-ranking Catholic church officials.

It may be a bit hard to digest Spotlight in the first few minutes because McCharty immediately boosted Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer's manuscripts in a fairly fast tempo. There will be a confusion about what is really going on with so many characters and unformed names milling about in the first 10-15 minutes before finally slowly but surely everything becomes clear and orderly. Michael Keaton is Walter "Robby" Robinson, chief editor of Spotlight who, one day in 2001, was calmly given the sudden task of his new editor, Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber) to investigate the sexual abuse case done by a pedophile priest. Of course this is not an easy mission for Robby and his Spotlight team of Michael Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams) and Matt Carroll (Brian d'Arcy James) for having a search not only involves an individual but an individual A veiled systematic sex crime that took shelter for a long time behind the sacred walls of the Roman Catholic church. 

Not without reason why Spotlight to be praised by the audience including bringing many prestigious awards. The combination of Tom McCarthy's sophisticated directing and well-crafted adaptation narrative creates a solid synergy, making Spotlight not only a biopic spectacle of two-hour informative investigation with a provocative theme that carefully bends the Catholic church system and journalistic ethics, but also The plot is packed so intense though it must be a little unfortunate because all the points of view taken from the team Spotlight, all as presented in one side only, almost never bring the party who was the subject of investigation, this slightly more have reduced the challenge especially considering there is a big conspiracy Which is behind it. Yes, seeing how the Spotlight team with such a great work ethic and dedication in gathering evidence and searching for clues are just a few of the best things you get here. Each new clue is capable of generating its own shock sensation while every obstacle that comes up makes you angry. Truth-seeking travel takes months for it is again not easy to gather evidence including a complicated bureaucratic system especially when it comes to interviewing traumatic victims.

There's an amazing balance McCarthy made here when translating his adaptation script. You can feel the thrill of an investigative thriller with a well-guarded tension as the team conducts an investigation as a journalist. Each ensemble cast played so brilliantly that they performed their respective roles after their capacity without seeming to be too exaggerated or to be the most prominent amongst the others, whether leaders or subordinates all felt so important in their role. While the drama element also works equally well when their search for a truth it can also have implications with its own personal side given the subject they face is quite heavy. There is a moral dilemma every character has to face, how they separate their personal ego and professionalism, all of which are highly relevant and natural without making it more complicated. And lastly, I love how McCarthy ends it all in such an elegant and memorable way, yes, that is a good ending of an equally good movie.

RATING (8/10)

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