State of Play: Review By slysnide

Based on the 2003 BBC miniseries of the same name by Paul Abbot, the film centers around a reporter's investigation into the suspected suicide of his friend's mistress, but with his friend being a congressman, the implications of the developments in the investigation escalate to perplexing proportions.

Russell Crowe stars as Cal McAfrrey, a street-wise reporter whose friend, Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) confides in him to help solve the mysterious 'suicide' of his mistress, thus prompting Cal to make this news story his top priority. Though his character doesn't really suggest he has any other priorities since he seems to be a guy who's worked as a reporter for the same paper for years, and he doesn't really seem to care about mentoring former blogger turned junior reporter Della Frye (Rachel McAdams). Especially when their ideas on how to run the same story is different from ethical & business perspectives. However this doesn't make McAffrrey a boring character at all, as he's actually the driving force of the film's story, and the news story he's following up throughout the movie. Crowe was the perfect choice for this as it seemed made for him. Not only did he nail down the look of what you'd expect a 'street-wise' reporter to look like, but his overall sense of experience [without the attitude of undeserved superiority as made certain by his boss Cameron Lynne (Helen Mirren)] made his character more likeable than the average reporter in the real world. Though not knowing any reporters myself, then I don't really know if I'm at liberty to say that. Not that it matters, for the point is: Russel Crowe nailed it.

Ben Affleck was more or less a supporting character in the film, though he was still a powerful character figuratively rather than literally, despite being a congressman. After all, he was at the center of the unfolding news story, which to Collins' dismay quickly comes to involve two other motiveless killings. With this all happening in the midst of his ethical debate over whether or not corporations of mercenaries should integrate with the military division of the U.S. Government, Collins is emotionally a loose cannon prone to firing at any time. Ben does this well, and considering most of his so-so performances lately, then this was a nice bounce back for him. Unfortunately his demeanor never really pays off since he's a talker, which hurts the story; especially considering his involvement in the whole plot.

Director Kevin MacDonald had a good story on his hands, but the first half of the film centers around seemingly meaningless events like Cal's multiple run-ins with a runaway, an unrelated double homicide, and the subplot of Stephen Collins' dilemma in Congress which don't have any payoffs till much later, thus making the first half the movie very bland on the first go round. For when these things pay off, it's not like some revelation strikes you square in the face. It was just a moderate response to an unexpected twist. And that was the film's problem. It would be better on the second viewing once knowing what the payoffs are, but that's not good enough to keep watching this average movie with above average acting, considering the contrast of the actors and the characters they play.

So overall, this wasn't a very memorable film, nor a very great one, even with the all star cast which even features cameos by real political players like Bob Woodward and Bob Schieffer. With Jeff Daniels, Viola Davis, Jason Bateman and Harry Lennix co-starring, the cast was rounded off nicely. Those actors however should've received more screen time as they were more enjoyable in the few scenes they were in when compared to the runtime devoted to the four main roles. And that coupled with the first hour's flaws makes this worthy of a weeknight movie at best.