Spotlight is a first-rate newspaper movie about how the Boston Globe brought out the story of priests molesting children, and I can only hope it has not destroyed its box-office possibilities by being too devoted to reality.
Because Spotlight leaves out any sensational temptations in its story as well as the usual contemporary aspects of crime thrillers like shoot outs and car chases and big orange explosions and superheroes like Rambo and James Bond. It even leaves out the customary romantic subplot; and that's largely because everyone is concentrating on their work.
And that work consists to a very great extent of telephone calls, shuffling through old files, worming information out of reluctant witnesses who would rather let the past bury its dead; even the molested children themselves, who are grown up now and don't want to go through the past again. Except for a few remarks about all the good work the church undeniable does and the people who have to have even a corrupt church, there is virtually no defense of the guilty priests or the officials who helped cover up their crimes; there is certainly no discussion of the unusual but not rare claim that the real harm of child molestation is caused by public reaction to it more than by the act itself.
But Spotlight is valuable for its suggestion that a lot of problems can be handled by quite ordinary people being allowed to do their jobs in unspectacular ways, even if they don't particularly like to do them in the beginning. The box-office fate of Truth, about Dan Rather and 60 minutes, worries me; but I hope Spotlight will do better: we need realistic movies about social problems, including ones about how we are supposed to know what is going on.
