Standard Of Review: In 'Spotlight,' Lawyers Help The Fourth Estate Investigate The First Estate

The acting and editing in Spotlight are top-notch; does it deserve the Academy Award?

Journalism and law have more in common that one would think. Both professions value excellent writing, and aim to investigate and report facts in a manner that can be easily digested by a layperson. In my legal writing, I even occasionally utilize the “inverted pyramid” method that I learned at my college newspaper. In the new heralded film Spotlight – which depicts the Boston Globe’s investigation of sexual abuse by Catholic priests – journalism overlaps with law.

Spotlight begins in 2000, when Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber) is hired as the Executive Editor of the Globe and immediately requests that “Spotlight” – the Globe’s investigative unit that conducts long-form journalism on a confidential basis – begins an investigation into the Catholic Church. The Spotlight team – including editor Walter “Robby” Robinson (Michael Keaton) and writers Michael Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams), and Matty Carroll (Brian d’Arcy James) – quickly uncovers scattered instances of abuse, but Baron insists on holding the story, encouraging the journalists to look into a possible cover-up by Church officials, including Cardinal Bernard Law. One of the paper’s other editors is Ben Bradlee Jr. (John Slattery), the son of Ben Bradlee, who was Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s editor at the Washington Post during the Watergate scandal, as depicted in All The President’s Men, the closest analogue to this film. In order to support the story, the journalists attempt to obtain information from several attorneys that have either filed cases against the Church or have defended the Church, including Mitchell Garabedian (Stanley Tucci), Eric MacLeish (Billy Crudup), and Jim Sullivan (Jamey Sheridan).

The acting in Spotlight is top-notch. Ruffalo is the film’s standout, embodying the dogged investigative reporter and walking with a hunched gait. Schreiber – a very good actor who has appeared in a lot of bad movies – steals almost every scene he is in, playing the quiet Baron as the smartest man in the room. Keaton is perfectly understated as the team’s supportive editor. McAdams gives a solid performance, though I wish she had a little more to do. McAdams was one of the lone bright spots in the disaster that is the second season of True Detective (I am pretty sure one of Vince Vaughn’s monologues is still going on), so we know that she can handle heavy lifting.

The film is directed by Tom McCarthy, who is probably best known for his portrayal of Baltimore journalist Scott Templeton in the fifth season of The Wire, but has gone on to direct a number of independent films, including the excellent Win Win. McCarthy is not a showy director; while there is the occasional notable shot (such as a long take down into the bowels of the Boston Globe building to show the Spotlight section), McCarthy mostly gets out of the way and lets the actors act. My one complaint with McCarthy is that the film is occasionally heavy-handed; for example, in one scene, a contemplative Rezendes watches a group of young children sing “Silent Night” in a church.

The film’s editing is top-notch. As much as I love journalism, even I will admit that it can be a boring subject. Nevertheless, editor Tom McArdle makes sure that the film moves at an incredibly brisk pace. I certainly never felt bored at any point in the film.

As a lawyer, I was obviously interested in the legal aspects of the film. On the surface, the film initially presents Garabedian as the “good lawyer” and MacLeish as the “bad lawyer.” Garabedian, a solo practitioner, is a man of the people, forgoing filing a class action and instead representing numerous individual plaintiffs in lawsuits against the church. The oily MacLeish is initially portrayed as a sellout, making a “cottage industry” out of suits against the church. The Globe reports accuse MacLeish of failing to help the greater good by frequently settling his cases with strict confidentiality agreements. However, as MacLeish explains, the statute of limitations for abuse cases in Massachusetts is extremely short, and damages are capped by statute. Therefore, because there is little incentive for abuse victims to actually bring a lawsuit, MacLeish’s clients will take whatever they can get. Moreover, as the film goes on, MacLeish becomes more nuanced, and even turns the tables on the journalists’ opinion of him.

The film also explores the moral implications of the lawsuits against the church, particularly through Sullivan, whose firm has represented the church in the past. Sullivan and Robby are lifelong friends, and Robby repeatedly asks Sullivan to become one of Spotlight’s confidential sources. In deciding whether to talk to Robby, Sullivan has to weigh the sanctity of the attorney-client privilege with the fact that his clients have committed monstrous acts. This resonated with me, as virtually all private-sector attorneys have, at one point or another, represented morally questionable clients. Moreover, I am happy that Sheridan is finally able to rid himself of the stink of his most notorious role – playing the father of television’s most annoying star-crossed lovers, Finn Walden and Dana Brody, on Homeland.

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As a millennial attorney, I was also amused by the film’s depiction of the practice of law from 2000 to 2002. For example, in one scene Garabedian tells Rezendes that he has just filed some newsworthy documents as exhibits to a motion on the docket of one his lawsuits against the Church. Rezendes, worried that he is going to get scooped by the Boston Herald, goes to the courthouse to photocopy the documents. However, first he discovers that the documents are missing from the physical docket. Then he is foiled by a lazy courthouse employee who is a stickler for enforcing the courthouse’s early closing time, causing Rezendes to wait overnight for the documents.

While I appreciated that a movie ostensibly about journalism delves into so many legal issues, the film gave short shrift to a lawsuit filed by the Boston Globe seeking to obtain numerous documents that were under seal. The film spends very little time on the suit, which ends up being a fairly important plot point.

As of now, Spotlight is the odds-on favorite to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. While I do not think that it is quite that good (among others, I think that Ex Machina, Mad Max: Fury Road, Inside Out, Sicario, and Creed are all better 2015 films), it is nevertheless a very good film that is definitely worth watching. And, after seeing the way that law was practiced less than fifteen years ago, I have never been so happy that PACER exists.


Harry Graff is a litigation associate at a firm, but he spends days wishing that he was writing about film, television, literature, and pop culture instead of writing briefs. If there is a law-related movie, television show, book, or any other form of media that you would like Harry Graff to discuss, he can be reached at harrygraff19@gmail.com. Be sure to follow Harry Graff on Twitter at @harrygraff19.

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