SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Spotlight (2015)won the Best Picture Oscar for its story based on actual events involvingwidespread child abuse by Boston Catholic priests and the cover-up perpetratedby the Catholic Church. It builds tension and outrage as the revelation of thehorrors become real for the reporters, and thus also the audience.

The film begins in Boston in 1976 at a policeprecinct. The police and the District Attorney’s office are trying to keepsecret the child molesting incident by a priest of small children. They arekeeping the press away. One of the cops says about an arraignment, “Whatarraignment?” Obviously, there will be none. A representative makesaffirmations to the victim’s family about all the good that the Catholic Churchdoes and that the offending priest will be transferred, as if that is supposedto lessen the effect of the abuse. The film then shows the conspiracy to coverup the atrocity.

We jump to 2001, which shows the length of time thatthe crimes have endured. Walter “Robby” Robinson (Michael Keaton) heads up theBostone Globe’s Spotlight division which does in-depth investigative reporting.He tells the new editor of the newspaper, a somber Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber)that it takes several months to find a story the four-member team will work on andpublish, which points to the thoroughness of the work. (Schreiber’s Marty is aquiet, deliberative speaker and is described sarcastically as “a barrel oflaughs).

The fact that many reporters are from Boston and some areCatholic makes the following revelations even more upsetting. They report to BenBradlee, Jr. (John Slattery), who has the investigative gene since his fatherwas Ben Bradlee who was the executive editor of the Washington Post during the Watergatescandal. Unfortunately, the newspaper’s circulation is down and there may bemore cuts, already showing the impact of online news.

 Marty wants toexplore why there hasn’t been an attempt to get sealed documents that showpriest John Geoghan molested eighty children and Cardinal Law (Len Cariou) didnothing about it.

Spotlight reporter Mike Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo, in aSupporting Oscar nominated performance) is a passionate and sometimes annoyingcharacter as he constantly questions everyone, even fellow reporters, aboutwhat’s going on. He says he runs to blow off steam, but Robby points out thathe “runs to work,” so even his leisure time meshes with his job. He isinterested in furthering the investigation. However, they all know there isgoing to be considerable blowback, including from the wide Catholic subscribership.

Mike meets the loud lawyer Mitchell Garabedian(Stanley Tucci) who is not a diplomatic guy. He is also paranoid, rightfullyso. The Church has tried to get him disbarred. He’s concerned about Mikewearing a wire and doesn’t even want him to take notes.

Robby and journalist Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams)meet with attorney Eric McLeish (Billy Crudup). Eric reveals how difficult itis to prosecute the priest. It’s not a class action suit, which makes anyadverse action a nightmare to handle given how each case is handled separately.There is a time limit of three years on bringing charges, and most victimsdon’t want to admit what happened until long after, since they were from toughneighborhoods and Catholic. Also, there is a cap of only $20,000 in a childmolestation case which creates a lack of motivation to engage.

The Spotlight team digs and finds stories aboutabusive priests who were accused and being moved around by the Church. There isalso the existence of a survivors’ organization. However, the newspaper mustget solid evidence given the sensitivity of the issue, so they are resistant tomove without solid evidence. The Church’s advocates stress the importance offaith, but here it is used to evade responsibility, to believe in something nomatter the negatives.

As a tradition, Marty, a new editor, meets CardinalLaw (an ironic name given the situation). More irony in that the cardinal wasonce an editor. He gives Marty a copy of a book detailing Catholic catechism,as if to indoctrinate him?

The reporters meet with Phil Saviano (Neal Huff), whoruns the survivor group, SNAP. He says, “when you’re a poor kid from a poorfamily, religion means a lot. And when a priest pays attention to you, it’s abig deal.” Phil is trying to get these lapsed Catholic reporters (and also theaudience) to empathize with the victims and understand the context of thesituation. He says, “It’s like God asking for help,” when the priest wantsfavors. When the priest pushes for sexual favors, “how do you say ‘no’ to God?”Phil says. He says it isn’t just physical rape, it’s also “spiritual”violation. The priest here, “robs you of your faith.” Victims will turn toalcohol, drugs, commit suicide, and some are survivors who are in SNAP. Philsays he sent information five years prior and he is angry because even theBoston Globe didn’t pursue the story earlier.

Mike’s persistence makes him a good reporter, and he getsthe lawyer Garabedian to let him interview Patrick (Jimmy LeBlanc), a victim inone of the cases. He doesn’t want Mike to use his name because he has a childnow, and he wants to keep the story hidden out of shame. His father committedsuicide and his mother was schizophrenic. Here we have a vulnerable person thatcan be groomed at the age of twelve. The priest took him for ice cream and thenstarted touching the boy. Mike observes that there are needle marks onPatrick’s arm, which verifies what Phil said about the effects on victims. Patrickhere confesses to a journalist instead of a priest, and it is cathartic. He thenallows Mike to use his name and says to get “these assholes.”

Mike’s interview alternates with Sacha talking to Joe (MichaelCyril Creighton), who realized he was gay at a young age, and when the priest urgedhim to have sex with him, Joe felt it was like a holy man was saying it wasokay to be gay. Later in life the realization that he was abused selfishly bythe priest traumatized associations he had with men, even though it was hissexual orientation. Just walking by his neighborhood’s Catholic church bringsback awful memories, showing how he can’t escape the pain of the past. She alsofinds out that Joe talked to lawyer Eric McLeish who discouraged lawsuits,which he didn’t mention before. More covering up the truth.

Mike and the others thoroughly research theinformation and realize there has been an epidemic of sexual assaults bypriests on children who had “shame” in their lives, so the pedophiles knew thechildren would not want to add to that feeling by exposing their predators. Mikediscovers that the Church began smear campaigns to discredit anyone who triedto expose these priests. In an archive that lists the priests by name and whenthey arrived and left parishes. Matt (Brian Darcy James) notes that the priestsunder investigation all were discharged on “sick leave,” or reassigned, blanketcover-up designations. There is a bad smell which turns out to be a dead rat inthe room, a symbolic addition that comments on how the whole situation isrotten.

Sacha and Robby go back to McLeish and find out he waspart of sweeping the abuse under the Church’s rug. He didn’t even file actionin the court system but kept the meager settlements between his office and thearchdiocese, who have the records that the Spotlight team can’t access. There wereconfidentiality agreements so McLeish can’t divulge names. As Sacha later sayshe received a third of all the settlements and the rest of the information washidden by the Church.

Marty is treated like an alien when he goes to aCatholic Charities Appeal dinner. Pete Conley (Paul Guilfoyle), on the board ofthe Charities, vouches for his attendance there, trying to ingratiate himselfand by extension, the Church. Robby is also there, and although he is not partof the organization, he has friends who are, and he went to the Catholic schoolacross from the Boston Globe. The connection is ironic, showing the pull of thepast versus the current outlook on those ties. Later Robby finds that asuspected priest was at his high school and molested a friend. Adding to thisirony, Robby does investigating at this affair by interrogating Jim Sullivan (JameySullivan) about his activity in helping a priest. Sullivan dismisses thequestions and says that the people there in connection with the Church havedone a great deal of good for the city. The film raises the question, withoutannouncing it, does that good justify the atrocities that the priests perpetrated?

Mike meets with lawyer Garabedian, whois Armenian. Mike is Portuguese, but was born in Boston. Garabedian says thatMarty is Jewish, and it takes an outsider in this case to investigate anentrenched, sacred institution. He also says that if it takes a village to raisea child, it also takes one to “abuse” that child. He sees this insulatedCatholic Boston world as a fortress that must be attacked. When asked, Mikesays that his wife does not like that he spends so much time working, and itturns out he is separated. The lawyer says he never married because what hedoes is “too important” to be distracted by a married life. Here we have thetradeoff between one’s own personal happiness and social purpose. Later,Garabedian tells Mike that he had a priest, who was threatened with exile toSouth America unless he kept quiet about abuse, who confessed to the lawyer.But the archdiocese stopped legal documents attesting to the cover-up to bemade public, so powerful is the Church in Boston at this time. (Garabedian iseating often when he meets with Mike, attesting to how he must get nourishmenton the run to fit his always busy work. And Mike is always running, which showshe has the same mindset).

On a telephone call, Richard Sipe (the voice of actorRichard Jenkins), a psychotherapist, gives statistics from a report as farback as 1985 that the Church knew about, including Cardinal Law, that therecould be 90 priests (research indicates the number is 87) who are pedophiles inBoston. Sipes says he may not be a member of the Church anymore, but “theChurch is an institution, Mike, made of men; it's passing. My faith is in theeternal. I try to separate the two.” The film implies that is the conclusion ofmany Catholics that keep their faith in their religion even if they have lostthat faith in the Catholic Church.

To show how this abuse hits close to home, reporter Mattsees the address of one of the probable priests in treatment down the blockfrom his house.

Robby confronts McLeish again and threatens by sayingthey could write a story about lawyers who made money off the settlementsunless he gets the names of the priests and the victims. McLeish says he sent alist a while back to the Globe because he needed the newspaper’s backing if hewas going to go public. Saviano, who heads up SNAP, also said he sentinformation to the Globe before. Apparently, the story was buried. So, thenewspaper is not without sin in this story.

McLeish resends the list he forwarded before with 47 priestsnoted. Marty says it’s more important that they show the system is corrupt,that the cover-up was systemic, instead of just focusing on the individualpriests. The implication here is that the problem will have a limited focus unlessthey expose the wider conspiracy.

A montage showing Sacha hitting the bricks,interviewing residents, including a policeman who says nobody wants to put“cuffs” on a priest. They show how it wasn’t just those in power who kept a lidon the abuse. Neighbors exerted peer pressure to keep things silent. One victimsaid his mother “put out cookies” for the clergy. The movie shows the darkerside of religion when its grip on people’s lives becomes dark instead ofenlightening.

Sacha has a breakthrough when she talks to oneex-priest, Ronald Paquin (Richard O’Rourke) who admits to “fooling around” withboys. But he says he received no “satisfaction” from the experiences. He didn’trape anybody because he knows the difference because he himself was raped. So,the film shows that abuse perpetuates itself, and here is a priest who doesn’teven understand his own pathology or the harm he inflicted on others. As Sachaleaves Paquin’s house, two boys ride by on bikes, emphasizing how closepossible victims can be to predators.

The tragedy of 911 puts a major delay on the Spotlightstory, but Mike works on getting the documents that Garabedian mentioned madepublic, and Robby and Sacha go to Robby’s old high school where a Father Talbotmolested his friend. They find more obstruction of information. It seems toRobby that everyone in power knows the true story, except them, and they arethe newspaper, the emphasis here is on “news.”

Mike gets a judge to finally allow the public recordsto actually become public. The records show that Cardinal Law quashed theevidence on the notorious Father Geoghan who molested several children. Make isangry that Robby doesn’t want to run the story until they get information on thecovering up of more than one priest’s actions. The implication here is thatRobby doesn’t want the Church to get the chance to shut the story down beforeits implications show more widespread atrocities.

The story not only affects Robby personally because ofthe molesting priest at his high school. Sacha won’t go to mass anymore withher grandmother. Mike says he liked going to church when he was younger andalways thought he would return to it before this story came to them.

Conley, the Catholic Charities board member, meets Robbyand tries to put a wedge between Robby and Marty, saying the latter doesn’tcare about Boston and is just trying to advance his own career and move on. Hethen subtly threatens Robby by saying how Robby will still be in Boston. Thesuggestion here is that Robby could suffer the fallout of the investigationinto the Church. Robby retaliates by saying they will be running the story.

Children sing “Silent Night” in the background sinceit is approaching Christmas. The voices of the innocents contrast with the crimesagainst youths as Mike types up parts of the story. Robby gets lawyer Sullivanto acknowledge the priests who he helped protect for the Church. The reportersnote that the festival of the Epiphany approaches in the Catholic calendar,which they say is an appropriate word for the revelation that is coming.

Robby tells the others, including Marty and Ben, thathe was the Metro head at the time when the information came to the newspaper in1993 and didn’t follow up on the priests’ abuse. So, it was his and the Globe’sfault along with the others that contributed to the news not getting out. Everyonewas involved. Marty says that sometimes we “stumble” in the “dark” until alight shows us the “blame” that goes around. The title of the news outfit andthe name of the movie points to that epiphany, where the spotlight shows us thetruth. But, it’s better late than never to right wrongs.

The effect of the story is widespread and personal, asthe impact hits Sacha’s grandmother. Matt says he has been writing a horrornovel, fiction as opposed to the actual horror in life. The film ends with theSpotlight team receiving numerous calls from victims who now feel safe enoughto tell their stories.

The end notes state that the Globe published close to600 stories on the abuse. 249 were accused of abuse in the Boston archdiocese.There were well over 1000 victims. Cardinal Law resigned, but instead ofpunishment he was assigned to a high-ranking post in the Church in Rome whichshows how the Church still refused to acknowledge its part in the scandal.

Mark Ruffalo in one of the extras attached to the filmstates that you can’t have a free society without a free press.