State of Play

Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck in State of Play

State of Play is a remake of the BBC television show, of the same name, which aired as a six part series in 2003. Clearly, fitting that amount of story into a feature length film must not have been easy, but it has been done well here.

Although many things have been lost and changed, the main spine of the story is pretty similar - veteran investigative reporter Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe – John Simm in the series) is investigating the murder and attempted murder of two men in the grimy backstreets of Washington for the city’s Globe newspaper. While inexperienced blogger for the same paper, Della Frye (Rachel McAdams – Kelly McDonald in the series) researches the apparent suicide of Sonia Baker, who was the research assistant - and much more! - of congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck – David Morrissey in the series). It soon becomes apparent, that both incidents are connected and the many twist and turns go from there.

The story - which explores the editor’s need to sell papers (creating sensualist headlines, speculating about sex scandals without evidence) versus truth and morality, along with the corrupt military government agency bumping off anyone getting in the way of them and billions of dollars - is heavy going, however, all very believable, if only for the fact that real life is probably a lot worse than the fiction.

Crowe is brilliant as a character that could have been quite unlikable if played the wrong way. He plays off the rest of the cast nicely, who are also very good. Helen Mirren, as the paper’s editor is perhaps underused compared with Bill Nighy in the series, but condensing it so, was bound to mean it lost certain things. Rachel McAdams plays a slightly predictable part (young, inexperienced, proofs her worth through damn fine reporting), but she is perfectly likable and at least she and Crowe don’t have to resort to sleeping with each other just to make friends. Supporting roles from Jeff Daniels and Jason Bateman also make for enjoyable viewing.

Director Kevin MacDonald, who made the excellent The Last King of Scotland previously, does well handling the twists and turns amid the snappy dialogue and several quality set pieces – including one very tense scene where Crowe is being stalked in an underground car park. Overall, State of Play is a very engaging thriller and, in my humble opinion, is well worth a watch.

State Of Play is on at the Broadway Cinema until Thursday 7 May 2009.

State of Play film website
State of Play TV Series website
 

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