Movie casts Catholic priest scandal into the ‘Spotlight’

The new film Spotlight, opening Friday in North Texas, would seem to have it all.

It boasts a stellar cast that includes Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber and Stanley Tucci. It’s directed and co-written by Tom McCarthy, who earned plaudits for such earlier films as The Station Agent and the Oscar-nominated The Visitor. Co-writer Josh Singer spent many years writing for such TV series as The West Wing and Fringe.

To top it off, it has the kind of loud, award-season buzz that could translate into big box-office.

But Spotlight, based on the journalistic investigation that exploded into the Roman Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal in the early 2000s, came close to never seeing the light of the multiplex.

“This movie almost fell apart three times. And when I say almost fell apart, it did fall apart,” says McCarthy by phone from Washington, D.C. “That just speaks to the environment of the industry right now and how difficult it is to get movies like this made — adult movies that are about something.”

Spotlight follows a group of reporters and editors at The Boston Globe whose stories about the activities of pedophile priests and the church’s subsequent cover-ups had global reverberations.

The paper would end up being awarded a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage, and the issues raised still dog the church, with Pope Francis referencing the scandal on his recent U.S. visit by saying it is something that “will never be repeated.”

Ensemble energy

For all of the important issues the film raises, it is still a movie, and McCarthy was aware that he wasn’t making a position paper. Without resorting to explosions and car chases, it still had to convey drama while staying true to the narrative.

“There were three problems. One was boiling it down, two was clarity, and three was making that much information active and cinematic,” he says. “[What the journalists were doing] was real nose-to-the-grindstone stuff and how [do you] give that energy without overblowing it? Without trying to romanticize it or sensationalize it? ...

“Part of that was creating a story that was very accurate and reflected the spirit of the investigation, particularly the teamwork that existed that creates our ensemble.”

That ensemble is powered by the casting of Ruffalo and McAdams as gung-ho reporters Mike Rezendes and Sacha Pfeiffer; Keaton and John Slattery as their editors, Walter Robinson and Ben Bradlee Jr.; Tucci as lawyer Mitchell Garabedian; and, especially, Schreiber as the Globe’s main, the-buck-stops-here editor, Marty Baron. (Full disclosure: I worked under Baron when he was editor of The Miami Herald, before he moved to Boston, and Schreiber captures him perfectly.)

“We got lucky with this project,” McCarthy says of the actors. “We started with Mark [Ruffalo]; he seemed like a great choice. He’s at a point in his career that he can get movies made just being who he is. ... Once we got Mark, all these other pieces started coming together.”

Recalling the ’70s

Spotlight, akin to the grimmer drug drama Sicario, has the throwback feel of a ’70s film. More than a few have compared it to a previous generation’s movie about a newspaper investigation into a scandal that had far-reaching repercussions.

McCarthy, who as an actor played a journalist in the acclaimed series The Wire, heard as much when showing the film to a group of investigative reporters the night before this interview. “I’ve had people come up to me and compare it favorably with the film All the President’s Men, which is high praise,” he says. “That’s such a seminal movie.”

He hopes the film sparks a conversation about the duty and the state of journalism in an era when media are in a state of technological and financial flux.

“[In the film] we couldn’t spend a lot of time commenting on the state of the industry that is journalism today as opposed to [the early 2000s] and how tragic that is,” he said. “But we felt we can sort of show it and, hopefully, that will start a dialogue that I think people need to start having.”

McCarthy, who is Catholic, says Spotlight’s subject matter has special meaning for him.

“I still feel really connected with the [Catholic] Church, and most of my family are practicing Catholics,” he says. “It heightens my frustation. How the church continues to handle this is kind of inexcusable at this point.

“Pope Francis is saying the right things, but he’s not doing them. ... I love that he meets with the victims, and I love that he says he feels shame for the church. That’s important, but it’s a small step.”

Of course, all the socio-political cultural relevance in the world doesn’t mean a project will be a success. This season has given filmgoers a plethora of movies dealing with weighty issues ripped from real life — Steve Jobs, Bridge of Spies, Truth, Freeheld, Our Brand Is Crisis, Stonewall — but, with the exception of Spies, they haven’t necessarily been setting the box office on fire.

McCarthy isn’t too concerned despite the initial troubles he had getting Spotlight off the ground.

“I think the studio is not as worried about that anymore because they know they have a movie that plays really well with audiences,” he said. “We did a test screening early on for the public and we scored tremendously.

“The audience was very profuse in how much they enjoyed the movie. They need a good story that works, and we have a good story that works.”

This story was originally published November 10, 2015 at 1:44 PM with the headline "Movie casts Catholic priest scandal into the ‘Spotlight’."