Review: ‘State of Play’

Let me begin by saying that ‘State of Play’ is a terrible title. It doesn’t really tell us anything other than what we already know, which is that this movie is a political thriller, and only fails miserably at attempting to induce any sort of intrigue in the story by way of suggesting a double meaning. With that off my chest, what I can tell you is that ‘State of Play’ is not a terrible movie. That is to say it’s not perfect either.

‘State of Play’ was directed by Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) and was co-written by Matthew Michael Carnahan (The Kingdom) and Tony Gilroy (Bourne trilogy, Michael Clayton). Suffice it to say that these three talented individuals working together was unlikely to produce anything less than entertaining, which is for lack of better terminology, the best way to describe this movie, despite it’s relatively non-descript usefulness. It’s also worth mentioning that the film is based on BBC television series that lasted for one season in 2003.

Russell Crowe plays an “old dog” newspaper reporter named Cal McAffrey who stumbles upon a major story while investigating what appears to be just another drug-related shooting. Cal soon discovers some evidence that the two stories and much more are all connected to one big political-corporate conspiracy that somehow involves his former college roommate and friend, Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck). During his research on the story, Cal is assisted by an eager, yet skeptical young blogger for the Washington Post named Della Frye (Rachel McAdams) and persistently ball-busted by his editor, played with old school, sharp-tongued wit by Helen Mirren.

The story itself is engaging enough and the plot has enough twist and misdirection to keep the audience guessing to a point. ‘State of Play’ benefits from solid writing and even more confident dialogue. The movie knows when to be serious, but more importantly it knows when to ease off of the serious stuff and allow for a bit of low-key, realistic comic relief that is presented well through the characters’ personalities. Solid supporting performances of smaller portions are given by Jeff Daniels, who plays Rep. George Fergus, and most of all Jason Bateman, who gives a memorable performance as Dominic Foy, owner of a successful PR firm. Bateman delivers what is probably the most accomplished acting in the film, save maybe Helen Mirren, displaying the widest and most believable range of emotions and character development within the shortest amount of screen time.

On the down side of the film, ‘State of Play’ falls short in two key areas. First, and I know it’s popular to bash Ben Affleck so I’ll emphasize this isn’t a direct bashing of the man himself… but, Affleck was not well cast in this role. He did an acceptable job within his capabilities, but there’s something about his appearance combined with his portrayal of the character that doesn’t fit. It seems too perfect, that is, perfect to the point of being imperfect. His character never convincingly develops any believable flaws and fails to sell us on the idea that he’s the “perfect politician” resulting in my once again watching his on camera and not being able to separate the actor from the role.

‘State of Play’ as a whole is well worth seeing if you enjoy these kinds of political thrillers, save the ending which to most will come off as either flat and anti-climactic (as is my opinion) or as mostly predictable as Jeremy stated was his opinion. Either way, I believe the film does offer enough merit in it’s entirety to satisfy most viewers and I can say it did ultimately prove more entertaining to me than I had originally predicted.

[Overall: 3.5 stars out of 5]