Written by: Josh Singer, Tom McCarthy
Directed by: Tom McCarthy
Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery
Rated: R
Plot:
The true story of how The Boston Globe reporters revealed a massive cover-up of child abuse in the Catholic church.
Verdict:
This movie delivers an incredible and horrifying story. The direction, performances, and everything else are excellent as the conspiracy steadily grows larger. The depiction of news reporting feels very real, and comparisons to All the President's Men (read my review) are inevitable. It's got a large cast, and it uses them well with each person feeling distinct and unique. It's a well made movie.
Watch it.
Review:
What a cast. Ruffalo is particularly good. You watch him in this and Foxcatcher (read my review), and he seems like a different person.
Tom McCarthy does a great job directing the movie. It's hard to believe his movie before this was The Cobbler. The script is paced perfectly and the ending is perfect.
McCarthy also played a reporter in television's final season of The Wire. I'm not a reporter, but this feels like an accurate depiction of the occupation.
This movie spins a good story, slowly building the narrative as the reporters uncover more clues. The characters are developed deftly, each feeling distinct. Many small moments build these characters and ground this in reality. When Keaton's character is in the archives and is passed a directory of the priests, he doesn't have his glasses and passes the book to a colleague to read. It's an insignificant moment, but it prevents the movie from being bland.
The plot is terrible and scary. Priests prey on troubled kids, kids that have no one else to help them. The church and everyone else turned a blind eye or were ignored. The paper itself dismissed claims or the people making the claims.
A big breakthrough for the team is when they see that sick leave is an official designation in the annual directory. Working back they see the pattern of offending priests shuffled among churches or being put on leave.
It doesn't stop at the churches, lawyers helped settle the cases directly with the church, preventing any recorded documents.
Phil Soviano, their initial lead, was dismissed by the paper as a quack five years ago, but now they realize not only was he right, his estimates of how many priests were predators were incredibly low. No one want to believe that his claims of thirteen predatory priests were true, but it turned out to be ninety. One of the reporters finds a church 'treatment center' just a couple of blocks away from his home.
No one wanted to believe priests were dangerous. This led to the coverup, both directly and indirectly. Even if other priests came forward to the Cardinal, they were threatened with relocation. From the top down, the behavior was hidden and dismissed. Everyone knew what was going on and looked the other way, claiming to just be doing their job. The few people that tried to make the information public were dismissed.
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