JEFFREY BROWN:

The film has an ensemble cast that includes Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams. It closely follows the Globe's investigative Spotlight team as it slowly unwinds the story, including the actions of a priest named Paul Geoghan, implicated in many abuse cases, and his ultimate superior, Cardinal Bernard Law, then the very prominent leader of the Catholic Church in Boston.

The Spotlight reporters culled 18 years of church directories to track over 900 active and retired priests. The team then created a database which allowed it to match a target list of 100 priests with allegations of abuse.

They homed in on priests who had been moved from a parish, sent on sick leave or otherwise removed from active service and left — quote — "unassigned."

In 2002, the NewsHour talked to Walter Robinson, who headed up the Spotlight unit.

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