Dynamic State of Play Stops the Presses
Veteran Washington, D.C. reporter Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe) is the last of a dying breed. An old school journalist who believes in ballpoint pens, spiral notepads and disintegrating shoe leather, he’s none too pleased with the state of his industry, especially the growing importance of internet bloggers like his paper’s own Della Frye (Rachel McAdams). The youngster epitomizes all he believes wrong with the news business, the push for instant sensationalist analysis at the expense of the truth a thing he just can’t stand.
Rachel McAdams and Russell Crowe in Universal Pictures' State of Play
Investigating a seemingly random double homicide, McAffrey uncovers evidence linking these execution-style deaths to a maelstrom surrounding his former college friend and roommate U.S. Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck). The politician’s main aid leading the investigation into a gigantic military contracting firm was killed in an apparent freak subway accident and it turns out he was also having an affair with her, the subsequent coverage casting a shadow over his attempts to shut the company down.
But after the journalist’s instincts sniff out a conspiracy, McAffrey is forced by his by-the-book editor Cameron Lynne (Helen Mirren) to work with Frye on fleshing out the truth. Taking her under his wing, the two polar opposites dive headlong into a maelstrom of murder, duplicity, innuendo and espionage discovering a labyrinthine web so sticky it could very well be the end of them both.
Based on an extremely popular 2003 BBC miniseries of the same name, State of Play is a streamlined journalistic thriller in the same vein as All the President’s Men, Absence of Malice and Shattered Glass. It is an economically exhilarating entertainment of the first order, plotted with precision and directed with steely determination by The Last King of Scotland filmmaker Kevin Macdonald. It is a movie that crackles with excitement and energy, all of it cemented in a concrete everyday reality that’s as authentic as the world outside my own front door.
I’ve never seen the British version. At 300 minutes, it was obviously an extremely complex drama that went into nooks, crannies and corners this one, at not even two hours, can get to. But that’s okay. Macdonald controls everything with such pinpoint precision that the fact the actual mystery isn’t that stupefying isn’t an issue. If anything, Matthew Michael Carnahan (The Kingdom), Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton) and Billy Ray’s (Breach) screenplay is a model of efficiency, everything put together with such intelligent skill watching it come together is a total joy.
What’s best about it all is that nobody overplays their hand here. Crowe could have gone over the top and turned his character into a hyperkinetic caricature. Instead the Oscar-winning actor keeps things subtle, easily becoming the most believable cinematic newspaper newsman since Robert Redford helped Dustin Hoffman break open Watergate.
If anything, McAdams is even better. On the surface the character of Della Frye should be problematic. She’s a neophyte with seemingly no ethical experience whatsoever, something that doesn’t make a lick of sense considering her employer is supposedly the most respected paper in the D.C. area. Yet the actress makes it work, her transformation from semi-irresponsible blogger to truth-seeking journalist working beautifully.
Everyone else matches them. Affleck was just born to play politicians, Collins the type of Congressman you both root for and are disgusted by all at once. Robin Wright Penn hits all the right notes as his disappointed wife (even if hints towards a relationship between her and Crowe don’t ring entirely true), Jeff Daniels excels as an overzealous Senator while Mirren takes the familiar role of editorial gatekeeper and makes it her own. Best of all is Jason Bateman as an oily publicist, the actor so jittery and alive yet still oozing in timidly petulant skittishness he’s got my early vote for best supporting performance of this still young year.
A case could be made that we’ve seen much of this before. Others could probably comment that the screenplay wraps up its myriad cacophony of loose ends a bit too easily. Still more will probably say Macdonald’s commentary on the state of journalism today (and his obvious disdain for internet and Cable-based news gathering) is obvious and simplistic.
While these points have some minimal merit, for the most part I respectfully disagree. This is a thought-provoking mystery that kept me completely engaged beginning to end. I was captivated by it, sometimes so much so I just about forgot I was watching a movie at all. This is a picture with serious meat on its bones, and while the statements it makes aren’t exactly new that doesn’t make them any less valid. For me, State of Play was all I hoped for and more, Macdonald’s latest a dynamic scoop worth stopping the presses for.
- review reprinted courtesy of the SGN in Seattle
Film Rating: êêê (out of 4)
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