November 23, 2009
''You're just seeking the truth. You're a truth seeker. You can't help it, that is just who you are.''
A team of investigative reporters work alongside a police detective to try to solve the murder of a congressman's mistress.
Russell Crowe: Cal McAffrey
Many in...( read more)vestigative thrillers focus on detectives digging around for the answers, but State of Play chooses to center around a complex story focused on by a newspaper. Cut a long story short, the forces and pressures motivating a reporter are not altogether the same as a lawful detective, which makes for a much more unique plot with characters an audience can view as more like themselves. A detective must identify a suspect, or catch a murderer is doing their job; a journalist who puts the pieces together himself in the pursuit of truth, is a hero on an entirely new level.
Oscar winner(2000, Gladiator)Russell Crowe stars in one of his certainly unique roles; partaking as a seasoned investigative reporter named Cal McAffrey. Crowe somehow more easily portrays Americans than any Australian or British actor working in Hollywood and he brings a light-hearted spirit to his serious role. His character finds himself in a dangerous place when his personal friendships with a congressman and his wife (Ben Affleck, Robin Wright Penn) come at odds with his job when news breaks that the congressman was having an affair with a girl who recently died in a DC subway accident. McAffrey first tries to protect his friend, but when he sees trends leading to conspiracy, his professional instincts take hold of his obssesive nature.
Cameron Lynne: Well, I happen to like miss Della Frye... and yes, I did send her down there to winkle something out of you. She's hungry, she's cheap and she churns up copy every hour.
Cal McAffrey: Yeah, I now... I'm overfed, I'm too expensive and I take way too long.
State of Play brags a diverse but star laden cast. Crowe is the dependable star vehicle, Ben Affleck the sometimes under-rated acting talent, and Rachel McAdams makes a triumphant return to the screen as a young journalist/blogger who assists Crowe. Also appearing in the film are (Oscar Winner 2006 The Queen)Helen Mirren as the editor, Jeff Daniels as fellow politician to Affleck and even Jason Bateman makes a cameo. All of them are talented and have proved so in many different genres, but never have they been together to make a thrilling puzzle of politics and journalism.
It's also the first experiment in the genre for the director, Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) Macdonald keeps this film slick and exciting, generally refusing to use a tripod but not distracting us with shaky camera-work either. He mixes lots of close detail shots with scene setters that tell the story at a provocative angle. There are numerous albeit typical thriller movie conventions used; but he makes it his own; He's a director certainly worth keeping an eye on.
Credit must also go to an incredibly well-assembled writing team. Although based on a BBC mini-series of the same name, State of Play boasts Michael Clayton creator and penner of the Bourne series Tony Gilroy for the drama and action, Shattered Glass creator Billy Ray for the journalism expertise and Matthew Michael Carnahan (Lions for Lambs, The Kindgom) for the political/military end. It's amazing to see how that all plays together so nicely with so many reputable writers. Some of the twists might be more on the extreme side, but it's mostly convincing and exciting the whole way through.
State of Play hooks you and keeps you guessing. It tries to keep the characters intimate and worth caring about while also making sure the story picks up velocity. Subplots occasionally get in the way (McAffrey's personal connection to Wright Penn's character among them) but you become pretty easily invested in what's going on and are frightened when what seemed like a nice mystery suddenly gets serious. This is a thriller that is smart and quick and never blows itself out of proportion. It holds its ground and it does so with much talent.
Lastly, the film questions the necessary extent of hard edged reporting, but also revels in its necessity. Watergate is alluded to as a building where a couple key companies are located. The connection is purposeful; we're supposed to see the scandal as a fictional modern recreation of Watergate in terms of how it's reported and uncovered. While films in the vein of All the King's Men praised the work of journalists, Play is too stubborn to give them full attention and glory, bringing into the discussion the idea of selling papers and not waiting too long to get all the facts or how the Internet/blog-sphere twists the news in various ways; for sales and profits disregarding the truth if necessary. It might not be at the front of your mind while enjoying State of Play, but it sets it above the many over baked detective thrillers out there any day.
Stephen Collins: I thought you didn't call them yet?
Cal McAffrey: I lied.
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