“Spotlight,” December 27, 2015, in theater. This is a well-meaning and very traditional newspaper film that makes more than a few structural and cinematic bows to its Ur text, “All The President’s Men”. Excellent work from Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachael McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, and Stanley Tucci as the ‘real life’ journalists and the plaintiffs’ lawyer who broke the Boston Globe’s 2001/2 story of the sex abuse cover-up in Boston’s archdiocese, a series that led to the enabler, Cardinal Law’s removal (itself a little-discussed cover-up), numerous arrests and trials, and a global upheaval in hundreds of Catholic archdiocese that is still continuing. Each of these folks is crafted with both strengths and weaknesses, that is to say, they are not presented as cartoon characters; a real plus, to say the least. If you followed the case, and living in Boston and subscribing to the Globe since 1989, it was almost impossible not to from the early ‘90s when the first abuse cases became front page news, you know the story line by heart. This homage to their determination and, under the influence of their new editor, Marty Baron, their willingness to keep their eye on the big story (system wide, top-to-bottom corruption within a church that is a key power broker in Boston) that becomes ever-bigger as they dig, is, however, gripping. The actors spent lots of time with the characters they played and really do them justice. The journalists’ passion is palpable.