Spotlight

‘Spotlight’ opens in 1976 Boston with a Catholic priest being been accused of molesting a child. Then the film fast forwards to 2001 where... priests are still being been accused of abusing children and still nothing is being done about it.

2001 was about the time that internet news was just starting to replace newspapers for most people and The Boston Globe is subsequently suffering from falling readership. In comes new managing editor Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber) who tasks the Globe’s ‘Spotlight’ investigative team at the Boston Globe with taking a fresh look at the abuse cases with the local Catholic Church. It was a good thing he did.

The team of Editor Walter ‘Robby’ Robinson (Michael Keaton) together with reporters Michael Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams) and Matt Carrol (Brian d'Arcy James) begin digging for information.

Boston though is a small town full of insular Catholics who would rather bury their head in the sand. They don't want to rock the boat or upset the gravy train and many simply point to the church's charity work as a sign the church is only a force for the good. The Globe itself hasn’t even been interested in the past because most of its readers are also Catholics. Baron is neither a local nor a catholic and doesn’t care about any of these things.

The team belatedly listen to Phil Saviano (Neal Huff) the leader of a victims group and Rezendes persuades Mitchell Garabedian (Stanley Tucci) an Armenian attorney working for some on the victims to let them start interviewing his clients.

Gradually the team uncover a pattern of child abuse by the church that has been covered up by lawyers who have organised pay offs to the victim's families and by the church itself through reassignment of the abusive priests to new parishes, where they can start over again. Abusing that is.

The team discover that there are more incidences than suspected, far more and that go far beyond Boston. Eventually after having to take a step back when 9/11 hits the story eventually breaks in January 2002. 

This is a true story, for which the Globe won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003, well told. There is no media agenda portrayed here, no setups, no hidden cameras, no honey traps, just brilliant investigative journalism. How refreshingly old school.

It makes for a riveting watch from beginning to end. There is no forced comedy, no romantic sub-plots and no trumped-up action scenes. What’s more there is no grandstanding for awards, yet if there’s any film out right now that feels like an Oscar winner, this is probably it.

Film of the year so far...

The Kids Are All Right

'The Kids Are All Right' is written, directed and I think most other things by Lisa Cholodenko. Who apparently writes from personal experience, so it’s kind of semi-biographical.

Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore) are an 'old' married couple but, and the clue is in their abbreviated Christian names, a lesbian couple. They also each have a teenage child produced with the aid of the same anonymous sperm donor. The test tube version one assumes. In many ways it’s an ordinary family with the kids constantly embarrassed and annoyed by their parents.



The eldest, Joni (Mia Wasikowska), named after Joni Mitchell, is now eighteen and legally able to track down her biological father without her Mother’s permission. She isn’t that bothered but is convinced to do so by her younger brother (Josh Hutcherson). Though we don’t get given any background to why the kids feel differently about it and why her brother is so keen. The man they trace is an easygoing restaurateur and organic farmer called Paul (Mark Ruffalo).

The brother by the way is a fifteen year old called Laser... 'Cool name' says his new found Dad. Errr no. Well maybe for a dog. Then again, no not even for a dog.



Paul begins to regularly meet with the kids and is taken by surprise by the fact he starts to feel very paternal towards them. He seems to have a positive influence on them and it starts to change him a bit as a person.

As for the mums. Jules is intrigued by this man who is undeniably part of her kids make up, yet also a complete stranger and she agrees to design and construct a garden for him. While control freak Nic is suspicious and jealous of someone she sees as an interloper in their cosy family set up.

There is a side plot about Joni trying to discover herself sexually and about Laser, well there’s not much about Laser actually, other than him stopping a friend of his inexplicably peeing on a dog...

Nic and Jules’s relationship has obviously gone a bit stale and one night we get a comedic, well cringe inducing, scene where they attempt to spice things up by watching male gay porn complete with leather clad hunks. An odd choice, that they then have to attempt to explain, unconvincingly, to Joni when she overhears them.

The result is more old spice that hot ‘n’ spicy, so it's no wonder that Jules decides to get her next sperm donation the old fashioned way and throws herself into Paul's leather clad arms the next chance she gets. A turn of events that will no doubt annoy lesbians in their droves. Who knows if a girl can be turned that quickly and that easily but it’s a male fantasy that Paul can now cross off his things to do before I die list.



Consequently Jules spends more time getting athletic in Paul’s bedroom than digging his garden. Cue several gratuitous graphic love scenes, although we’d already had one earlier with Paul and his attractive female assistant. Jules will be pleased to know that he seemed to repeat the exact same repertoire in the exact same order with her.

One of the strongest moments of the film is when Nic has a scene with Paul at the dinner table, watched by the whole family, where she finally seems to come around to Paul's easy going charm, almost to the point of seduction. Jules looks mightily jealous and concerned. Then Nic discovers her partner’s hair in Paul’s bathroom and subsequently, when she snoops, in his bed... Hang on. A question if I may? Would you recognise your partner’s hair in the plug hole? I wouldn't. Long brown hair is long brown hair. You would have to be a mega suspicious person to jump to the same conclusion that Nic did and if your partner wasn’t even supposed to be into that gender, totally paranoid too.

This unsatisfactory discovery of their affair leads us to a very unsatisfactory ending. Well actually it’s a complete cop out. The film had created some interesting situations that were well worth exploring but then it all ended in such an illogical way.



Jules grovels to the rest of the family, apologizes for her actions and assures Nic that she’s still an All American lesbian despite showing more than a few traits of being a rampant bisexual. So Jules rejects Paul, despite the fact he confesses he’s fallen in love with her. As do the kids, the kids that Paul has now realised mean everything to him. Enabling Nic to triumphantly tell Paul to go and find his own family, when he comes to their house to make his own apology.

So in the end the film never goes anywhere and everyone appears to end up back where they started, resuming their previous lives as if nothing has happened. Which is something I really hate to see in films.

It also caught me off guard. I’d thought all the way through I was supposed to be rooting for Paul, who after all didn’t ask for any of this and it was the kids who initiated the contact with him, but all along it was a film about two lesbians staying together in the face of adversity.

It’s an entertaining film but one that fails, frustratingly, to fulfil its potential.

I imagine in the end both kids went on to maintain contact with Paul, Joni did takes his hat that he gave her to college with her, meanwhile Jules presumably left Nic, anything else just wouldn't be realistic.