Considering the very controversial and sickening nature of this story and how it can be sensitively portrayed everything about this film is outstanding and highly impressive. From the performances of the leading ensemble cast to the supporting actors it is clear the entire team of the ‘Spotlight’ film knew the importance of what they were making.

For the victims then and the victims now this is a testament to the absolute corruption, abuse of power the true helplessness and impotence of those on the lower rungs of the ladder.

All of this in a film with no sensationalism, no recourse to graphic detail, no deliberate emotional overloads. It is as if the film crew followed the Spotlight team around as their long and difficult investigation. As far as I can tell this film is truly authentic which is a rare commodity in a film these days especially those that are based on true events. The cinematography relies on a natural look and this gritty realistic feel to the ongoing investigation is as important to the story as the top-class acting on display.

Everything about this movie is outstanding -- the performances, the way the true events are handled, the cinematography. In this day of digital news, this movie makes us stand back and realize what we may lose in the way of investigative journalism as we slowly kill off print media.

Each character is portrayed very well and I never got the feeling that the story was preaching or too dramatic. The cast truly is an ensemble cast and no one actor pokes their head above the parapet shouting look at me, look at me. Mark Ruffalo clearly studied Mike Rezendes’ manners and way of behaving and Rachel McAdams gives her best performance to date. In this part of the review I could just list each actor and say how great they were but really looking at the cast list you know you are going to get good value for money, Live Schreiber and Stanley Tucci are in it for goodness sake. I was particularly impressed with how each character was given just a little background story beyond their life as a reporter to flesh them out, make them ‘real’, but not enough to distract, slow-down or make the film melodramatic. Other film-makers should take a long hard look at that aspect.

There is never a wasted scene or character in the film, nothing is sensationalised but the overwhelmingly powerful message is that this happened, was allowed to happen and then covered-up by those with the power to stop it – and worst of all is still happening and probably will continue….

Sometimes a film is more than just a film.