This past weekend, I viewed the film “Spotlight” and exited shocked and astonished. This particular film is one that covers a very heavy subject: the sexual assault of boys that occurred within Boston’s Catholic churches a few years back. In many cases that would make a film slow, depressing, and hard to see. However, this is not the case with “Spotlight.”

Within the film, the issue is taken, responded to, and researched with delicacy, respect, and the kind of factual compassion only a truly great reporter can manage as they listen to accounts of many of the victims within the Boston area, which were done perfectly and were truly heartbreaking.

The cast did the men and women who covered this piece justice, portraying them as persistent, diligent, and sympathetic, showing easily how this affects them both professionally, personally, and religiously. Not only that, but the lessons and themes of the movie, of how sometimes it takes someone on the outside to reveal something no one else will say, is truly impactful.

Stanley Tucci’s performance helped drive this point home and plays his role with a perfect mix of realism and hope. Mark Ruffalo’s character exploded with passion over the issue and was portrayed as persistent, at times odd, but all in all a firm believer in justice. Michael Keaton, who played the head of the Spotlight team, played his role as a tough but fair leader of the team well, capturing the struggle to tell the truth and the protest he received for it. And Liev Schreiber, who played the new editor and chief of the paper, showed the real life man’s curiosity and portrayed as a questioner of tradition rather than an instigatory.

The cinematography of the film was very uncensored to match the material. The constant wide shots to show the many church steeples helped reinforce silently how important this story is in that particular city, where Catholicism thrives.  

The director, Tom McCarthy, was able to arrange this story perfectly, allowing the characters to breathe with a mixture of realism and optimism along with creating a shock factor with amazing subtlety as the case unfolds.

Though the film takes this issue and artfully reveals it without shoving an opinion down the audience’s throats, the film is still about something very dark. The language and actions described are uncensored, so if you are uncomfortable with such candor, perhaps this is not the film for you.

This film takes something horrible and demonstrates its discovery and unraveling artfully, factually, and with a decorum that is essential to all reporters and is showed  beautifully by the cast. In short, a must see.