Always interesting but more in a drama documentary style, Spotlight fails to catch fire. The investigation is carefully plotted and meticulous in it's depiction of the journalist's search for the truth. It just felt a little flat and cold without engaging us emotionally. I expected a bigger reaction from the church that might have put the whole purpose at risk, but no. Tom McCarthy directs with a plan but no heart. All the acting is very fine but somehow without an intensity that might have made a difference.
Maybe it's me, but A Bigger Splash was another movie that could have been more emotionally involving. I guess if Tilda Swinton's recovering rock star Marianne Lane could have spoken (her throat condition only allows some occasional whispers) this might have been a great film.The first half was good but it overstays it's welcome in a slightly tedious second. Who wants to see them shopping? The few flashbacks were superb and I wanted to see more. Again the acting was sound, Ralph Fiennes maybe doing too well to be the annoying visitor.
At last, a promising police thriller full of corrupt cops and Russian mobsters. Unfortunately the dark intensity prescribed by director John Hillcoat misfires. These movies never need the unflinching seriousness of the acting and the script, we just need to hear the words, explain what is going, a bit of light (think of the far, far superior The Inside Man) and get on with the action. "Predictable and incoherent at the same time" said one critic close to the mark. Woody Harrelson tries his best to lighten up and Kate Winslet is unrecognisable as the Russian mafia boss. This character needs her own movie.
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