Spotlight it is a didactic story. In it the director explains how journalism should be. And although new media consumers may not know very well if there was ever real journalism, surely we could understand its message.
The actor, screenwriter and director Thomas McCarthy has achieved a casting that could be envied by any of the directors of today with actors of the stature of Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery. I think it has been wasted and this is something that I will explain later.
In 2002, a team of investigative reporters from the Boston Globe uncovered the pedophilia scandals committed for decades by priests in Massachusetts. The publication of these facts, which the Archdiocese of Boston tried to conceal, shook the Catholic Church as an institution.
Being a film that has a lot of dialogue and information, the responsibility falls more heavily on the interpretations, on the main characters. And I think they have not given their all due to errors with the script. The only one who I think has made his dilemmas clear is Ruffalo with a character that suited him like a glove, although his performance is not without merit. I think the film could be more dramatically charged and that's a script thing. And just with this change we would have seen one of the best casts in the last twenty years play one of the best roles of his life.
This is a good movie that could have been a masterpiece. One of those movies that you end up watching over the years repeatedly. Which is not the same as a good movie. Going from one phase to another will be something that only a privileged few can achieve. At the end of the day, we also have to thank the director for being original on the subject, fearless, brave and for reminding us of what real journalism is. If we ever had it clear.