State of Play
Find the Truth
Synopsis: After the murders of a drug junkie and and innocent pizza boy are linked to the suspicious suicide of congressman Stephen Collings (Ben Affleck) assistant and mistress. Reporter Cal McAffrey (Russel Crowe) and blogger for the Washington Globe Della Frye (Rachel McAdams) find themselves working on a story that is thick with government conspiracy. As Cal and Della dig deeper into the mystery involving Collings mistress, Sonia they soon find that Collings was set up by a corporation on the brink of privatizing and controlling homeland security. With time running out and the Globe's new management putting a hold on their story, Della and Cal needs to find a credible source that hasn't died yet.
Breakdown: A I wrote the synopsis for this one I feared I'd run out of blogging room. State of Play was a decent suspense thriller but it lacked a certain consistency. While the plot was generally centralized it shot off in several different directions that at times felt contrived and made the movie slightly hard to follow. Cal starts by following one story and then switches to the next one and then back to his original lead. At the same time he is dealing with his inappropriate relationship with Colling's wife, butting heads with his editor (Helen Mirren), and attempting to help his old college bud who is Collings the congressman. Della's character was good and well formed but seemed almost useless, she did very little to advance the story on her own accord and seemed more like Cal's assistant. The ending attempted a twist surprise but actually ended up coming off more like "now what is going on"?
Acting was solid all around. I'm not a huge Crowe fan but he did a pretty good job. McAdams I thought did good for what she was given, her role was like as mentioned before almost not needed. I give props to Jason Bateman who plays the sleazy source that ends up being the last piece of the puzzle. He did a great job!
Kevin Macdonald directs State of Play and the pacing and flow were good but the plot just didn't quite keep it all together for me.
Overall: State of Play was entertaining and while it's not some blow your mind thriller it's definitely worth a rental.
Rating: 3&1/2 Stars
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