SPOTLIGHT

Fantastic film; we both gave it a 10+. Spotlight is the name of the investigative team that works at the Boston Globe. When the paper gets a new editor (Liev Schreiber) he wants the team to work on and follow up on a priest sex abuse story. The investigation and probing into this case leads to  the discovery that  there were several other priests that were put on "sick leave" or transferred to another parish and that a prosecutor (Billy Crudup) had been quietly settling these cases with no documents ever filed in the court and that there was a support group of survivors.

And as the persistent and determined questioning continued, the one priest eventually expanded to almost 90 and it became very clear that this had been going on since at least the 80's with some lone voices clanging the abuse bell and that Cardinal Law knew all about it all this time.

The pressure from the Boston community (where over 50% of the people are catholic) was shown in quiet, subtle but powerful ways. and this pressure came from politicians, the church, college alumni and prosecutors. An especially good scene in the movie was the increase in resistance when 9/11 occurred; the religious line was that at this time, the catholic church and its priests were needed to keep supporting the people during this disaster and it would be very very wrong to undermine the church and its message of faith.

The acting was sterling by Michael Keaton, Billy Crudup, Rachel McAdams and Mark Ruffalo. and even though i knew the ending of the story, it was presented in the film with tension and immediacy and suspense.