Movie Review: Spotlight

I'm a big fan of the library - in fact, they just moved it to an area right next to the farmer's market in Half Moon Bay, so it's easier to get to and visit. I could spend hours there, but usually I have an impatient toddler so I just run through and grab some books. We usually read a couple while we are there and then we are on our merry way. One awesome thing about this library is the DVD collection. While they are not the latest and greatest, they do have a fun collection and all the kids' DVDs are separated. We recently rented Spotlight, the story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the systematic cover up of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. This movie starred Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams and Mark Ruffalo as some of the team that uncovered this story. This movie was really well done, I thought. The movie is called Spotlight because that's the name of the in depth investigative report published in the Globe. The story begins with a new editor, (they make a note that he's Jewish) pushing for this story. The editor noticed these stories of sex abuse in the Church and that nothing ever came of them. So the team undertakes investigating all of these incidences and basically uncovers the cover-up in Boston that most likely goes all the way to the Vatican. The movie was very intellectually well done. It's upsetting, but it presents more of the investigation by the newspaper and very few of the people who were impacted (although it does portray a few). The movie has no satisfactory ending (obviously) but shows the value of independent investigations done by journalists. It's very deserving of the accolades it received when it came out and it's pretty fun to see familiar Boston in a movie.