Review of Spotlight (2015) by Wiebke K — 28 May 2016

Review:

Although I found the subject matter touching and pretty upsetting at times, and all of the actors put in a great performance, from an entertainment point of view, it seemed more like a documentary than a cinematic extravaganza, and I really wanted to see the priest's get punished for all of there nasty acts. I'm glad that the director used top actors to portray such a touching story, about a group of journalist, who work for the Boston Globe, and go to extreme lengths to undercover the terrible true story about priest who rape young kids. The fact that the important documents were hidden away, was truly disgusting, and the poor victims, who were mostly damaged for life, also touched me. You do have to be in the right mood to watch this film because it is very one toned and it is one of those movies that will leave you feeling angry and pretty emotional. As for the performances, all of the actors gave this delicate subject, there all, and it shows journalist in a different light, by proving that they also can do good without uncovering a scoop, just for profit. Personally, I don't think that it's one of those films that you can watch time and time again but it's still a well made movie, which brings an untold story to light. Enjoyable!

Round-Up:

I'm not sure that this film deserved a Best Picture Academy Award, especially with Mad Max and the Revenant in the same category but you can't fault the film for emotion, and the script is well written. Personally I don't think that it needed to be 2 hours long and I did find some of the scenes repetitive but with that aside, it's still one to watch and it's great to see Keaton back on top form. The movie was directed and written by Tom McCarthy, 49, who also brought you the Station Agent, The Visitor, Win Win and the disappointing, the Cobbler, so this movie was a complete change of directed for the actor/director, who recently starred in Pixels with Adam Sandler. He was brave to make a movie about a subject matter which has been kept under the radar for some time, and I'm sure that there are still people out there that won't accept the truth but I personally think that there was room for Tom to go deeper, from the punishment perspective. Its still a decent film which deserved recognition but I did see better films in 2015/2016.

Budget: $20million.

Worldwide Gross: $88.3million.

I recommend this movie to people who are into their biography/history/dramas starring Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci, Billy Crudup, Elena Wohl and Brian D'Arcy James. 6/10.