State Of Play Review

State Of Play Review

Cast: Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Jason Bateman, Robin Wright Penn, Helen Mirren, Jeff Daniels
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Screenplay: Matthew Michael Carnahan, Tony Gilroy, and Billy Ray
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Rated: M violence and coarse language
Running Time: 127 Minutes

Find The Truth

Synopsis:

Oscar® winner Russell Crowe leads an all-star cast in a blistering thriller about a rising congressman and an investigative journalist embroiled in a case of seemingly unrelated, brutal murders. Crowe plays D.C. reporter Cal McAffrey, whose street smarts lead him to untangle a mystery of murder and collusion among some of the nation's most promising political and corporate figures in State of Play, from acclaimed director Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland). Handsome, unflappable U.S. Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) is the rising star and tipped to be his party's contender for the upcoming presidential race. Until his research assistant/mistress is brutally murdered and buried secrets come tumbling out. McAffrey has the dubious fortune of both an old friendship with Collins and a ruthless editor, Cameron (Oscar® winner Helen Mirren), who has assigned him to investigate. As he tries to uncover the killer's identity, McAffrey discovers one truth: when billions are at stake, no one's integrity, love or life is ever safe.

My Verdict:

Russell Crowe is an old-school journalist, Cal McAffrey, working for the Washington Globe daily newspaper, who stumbles upon a connection between a murder and a suspected suicide, his natural curiosity leading him to discover a link to his old room-mate and now U.S. Congressman, Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck). Suspecting there is a story here, McAffrey delves deeper, mentoring new-age blogger journalist Della Frye (Rachel McAdams) along the way, with the approval of his tough editor Cameron Lynne (Helen Mirren). They discover political corruption, deceit, lies and scandal that have far-reaching consequences for all involved if revealed and as they continually seek to expose the truth whilst trying to meet their professional deadlines, their own safety is threatened.

A core element of State of Play is Cal McAffrey's ethical integrity as he discovers truths he doesn't want to accept, including his relationship with Collins' wife, Anne (Robin Wright Penn). He has to constantly battle his conscience as he moves forward which is counterbalanced by his role as mentor to Della. This relationship is a key element as the two are poles apart professionally: Cal is messy, takes notes manually, drives an old car and often stretches boundaries, whilst Della is neat, uses a computer, never seems to have a pen handy and is not yet a hardened journalist.

Overall, the cast are excellent. Russell Crowe delivers a solid performance that shows his true capabilities, Helen Mirren is as classy and steadfast as always, Rachel McAdams provides fresh and natural appeal, the oft-maligned Ben Affleck shows he can cut it in a dramatic role, Robin Wright Penn more than adequately fulfils the politician wife and Justin Bateman keeps his loose cannon PR man nervously controlled.

State of Play is based on the 2003 BBC TV Series of the same name. From what was a 6-part series, it has now been restructured to become a feature film with some changes including the location - now Washington, D.C. and the editor now a female. None of these changes alter what is a tight, crisp thriller that constantly evolves as characters slowly reveal more and the layers of the story are stripped back. Sometimes keeping track of all the players in a multi-layered story requires some serious concentration as crucial evidence can easily be missed but this isn't a problem here as director Kevin Mcdonald gives enough time to key scenes and includes some action sequences to add balance to the dialogue driven scenes. This is a traditional approach to a suspense thriller that thankfully doesn't need to resort to special effects, sex or blood and gore to deliver.

Rating : ****

Christina Bruce


State Of Play


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