State of Play | Russell Crowe, Helen Mirren

State of Play | Russell Crowe, Helen Mirren | At All Costs, Find the Truth

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	State of Play Russell Crowe, Helen Mirren Universal Studios, 2009 average customer review:based on 97 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Academy Award®-winner Russell Crowe leads an all-star cast, including Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams & Helen Mirren in the blistering thriller about deception, manipulation and corruption. When D.C. Reporter Cal McCaffrey (Crowe) is assigned to investigate the murder of an assistant to an up-and-coming politician (Affleck), he uncovers a conspiracy that threatens to bring down the nation?s power structures. In a town of spin-doctors and wealthy power brokers, he will discover one truth: when fortunes are at stake, no one?s integrity, love or life is safe. From director Kevin Macdonald of The Last King of Scotland, State of Play brings together gripping performances, riveting suspense and is ?sophisticated, intelligent and powerful? (Shawn Edwards, Fox-TV).

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shamazing

Great movie, great plot.

Ben Affleck = so very attractive.

But it would be a great movie even if there was a less attractive man to drive the conspiracies.

At All Costs, Find the Truth

It is so refreshing to see a 'suspense thriller' genre film that does not star building explosions and car chases as the main characters. STATE OF PLAY demands that the audience stay tuned in throughout this fine plot, so nimble are its twists and turns that it is easy to get lost unless focus is maintained. Matthew Carnahan, Tony Gilroy, and Billy Ray have adapted the television series by Paul Abbott, handed it over to Director Kevin Macdonald who in turn has placed this dazzling story in the capable hands of some terrific actors and the result is a film that is tightly woven and beautifully executed entertainment.

There are many levels to the story - the dwindling impact of the printed American newspapers that are succumbing to the immediacy of the Internet, the demise of investigative journalism and the rise of 'hot stories' for the sake of selling newspapers as opposed to informing the public of important issues, the deep seated corruption in the government and the extent to which the government will go to cover up important yet politically delicate issues, and the loss of reporters who have a drive to investigate until the truth is uncovered.

Russell Crowe, far too fat and grungy for a healthy actor, is the reporter bent on finding the truth, Helen Mirren is the desperately driven editor at the threat of losing her job for lack of Inquirer-like stories to sell her paper, Rachel McAdams is the bright young but inexperienced reporter who learns the game from Crowe, Crowe's best friend Ben Affleck is the Congressman at the center of the latest governmental mess, Robin Wright Penn is Affleck's wife and Crowe's lover, and the plot twists and turns on the murder of an aide to Affleck who is not what she seemed to be. But then none of the government types (Jeff Daniels), PR people (Jason Bateman), or others involved in the plot are clean. The plot is well outlined by others but it would be unfair to go without commenting on the excellence of the cameos by Viola Davis as a pathologist, David Harbour as an informer, Henry Lennix as the detective, and Michael Berresse (best known as a Broadway musical comedy star) as the terrifying hit man. Without depending on CGI effects, this is simply a stunning drama where the terror and thrills come from the performances by the actors (this may be Russell Crowe's finest role to date!). A film for thinking adults. Grady Harp, February 10

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Good entertaining film with no gratuitous "action"

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STATE OF PLAY is a good sound thriller of the conspiracy type that will remind many viewers of ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN. The plot concerns an evil corporation that has, for all intents and purposes, been hiring worn-out soldiers and employing them directly, running on the government's money. (The corp's name is changed in the movie but look for its logo, which is similar to the real thing.) So well-backstopped is this menacing entity that it has effectively squelched the news media from using the term "mercenaries," which of course is exactly what privately-employed soldiers are.

The cast boasts Russell Crowe as the crusading reporter who gets in over his head, a last-minute sub for Brad Pitt. The investigation becomes so convoluted and complicated that he needs a rookie reporter (Rachel McAdams) to help. Along the way the pair have to deal with a bottom-line-oriented editor (Helen Mirren, somewhat reminiscent of the Glenn Close character in THE PAPER), an idealistic young congressman conducting an investigation into the company (Ben Affleck) and his mentor, a fellow congressman who turns out to have more sides than we first thought (well underplayed by Jeff Daniels). The plot blooms nicely with the emphasis on gathering paranoia -- not only who knew what when, but what was their motive in doing what they did? The reporters have to deal with the spectre of electronic eavesdropping and physical danger (I'd rather not spoil that part.)

This is a good evening's entertainment. The movie is solid and the plot will keep you guessing. It has a minimum of the kind of sudden-attack violence to which this film genre seems increasingly addicted. Russell Crowe's character is well portrayed but disheveled to a fault; nonetheless I feel if Brad Pitt had played a clean-cut version of this role as originally cast, the overall movie would not be vastly different. STATE OF PLAY is not an outstanding flick like ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN but it has its moments and holds interest. It also takes some interestng looks at the non-federal part of the District of Columbia, the parts tourists don't see but locals know well.

For the sake of home viewers I should note that we saw the first DVD release and it is surprisingly skimpy on bells-and-whistles, just two brief deleted scenes and a fairly standard making-of documentary with director, screenwriter and actors. No Commentary as of yet.

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A Well-Paced Thriller

As a fan of the "political thriller" genre, I had been very disappointed in the recent fare from that category that I had viewed. It seemed as if either all the answers were given up front (rendering the rest of the film rather boring), or the filmmakers tried to cram every revelation into the last few minutes. Fortunately, "State of Play" does neither, instead relying on terrific pacing that will keep you into the plots and guessing all the way to the end.

The basic plot of the film centers on two reporters, played by Russell Crowe and Rachel McAdams, for a dying (aren't they all these days?) newspaper. As they begin work on a seemingly simple story involving a murder, they come to find that its threads are much deeper than what some in the government would want them to believe.

Though this seems like the standard fare for the political thriller genre, the pacing (an under-used criterion in filmmaking these days) is so excellent that it never feels old or stale. With seemingly each passing minute, a new element is introduced into the lives of either the characters or the unfolding mystery plot. Never once did I find myself glancing at the VCR timer to see how much was left...I was enthralled by the entire story.

In the acting department, Crowe turns in another stellar performance as a hard-nosed journalist who doesn't mind doing some dirty work to feed the journalistic machine. McAdams also shows how versatile she can be (how many actresses could pull off Mean Girls, Nicholas Sparks fare, and this sort of thriller in a career?) as Crowe's sidekick who slowly becomes so much more. About the only disappointment is Ben Affleck as a U.S. Congressman...it seems as if he is just kind of sleep-walking through his screen time.

The final aspect that pushes this film somewhere between "above-average" and "excellent" is the plot's grounding in real-life issues. While working for a large newspaper run by an editor (Helen Mirren) who knows what needs to be done for the business to survive in these times, Crowe and McAdams' characters are constantly challenged by how far they should go to uncover their story. The angle isn't overly preachy, which is always a plus, instead trying to show the reality of the situation.

Thus, if able, I would give this film a 4.5 star rating. Though it doesn't have quite enough rememberable "oomph" to be truly a classic (I watched it two weeks ago and already the details are beginning to fade), it delivers a very entertaining two hours filled with twists, turns, and interesting characters.

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