To paraphrase one of the classic X-men titles I've always loved, "Welcome to the world of journalism, hope you survive the experience!" State of Play is a political thriller, but it's core conceit is the supposed ambiguity of journalists. Russell Crowe plays Cal McAffrey, an old school streetwise investigative journalist for The Washington Globe. Cal believes in working the story from the ground up, the way the old timers used to do it; following the clues no matter where they may lead. So ofcourse he has a problem with hot shot blogger Della Frye, played by The Notebook's Rachel McAdams. Cal believes bloggers are a blight on the business, believing(and rightly so at first) that all they do is present opinion with little basis in fact. However, Cal finds his own values thrown into question when a young, upstart, female aide to Congressman Stephen Collins(Ben Affleck) winds up murdered. See, Cal and Stephen are old friends, and the clues are pointing towards Stephen having something to do with it.
Cal reluctantly teams up with Della to uncover the truth about the crime. Cal at first appears to be in this solely to rub her face in the reality of what being a journalist entails, but as Cal begins to dig deeper and his own actions are thrown into question, it's Della who finds herself the lead dog in a case involving a wide ranging conspiracy involving a prominent defense contractor, drugs, and murder. Throughout all this, the writers seem to be saying something about the true nature of the newspaper biz in today's society. Once, newspapers were the eyes and ears to the world for most people. Dwindling sales and an increased irrelevance thanks to the internet(and blogs), have forced most papers either to compromise their integrity for the sake of a quick buck or fold altogether. Helen Mirren plays Cameron Lynne, fierce editor of The Washington Globe who finds herself in the position of having to appease her bosses with eye-catching, TMZ style headlines in lieu of real, fact-based journalism.
Perhaps the most entertaining thing about State of Play is that about 1/3 of it was filmed in DC. Georgetown was the setting for the brutal opening chase sequence, and Crystal City's American Hotel figured prominently in the final acts. And as is standard nowadays we get the usual group of prominent Washington reporters playing minor bit parts: Frank Herzog pops his face in as part of some sub-committe, Margaret Carlson, and ofcourse Bob Woodward who probably has an IMDB credit list as long as my arm at this point. In order to shoot the murder which sparks the film's story, Rosslyn Metro was used as the locale. You'd think with all the headaches I went through trying to get home during their filming(it slowed down multiple friggin' lines) they'd give me a credit or something. A day's scale pay, but nooooooo....all I got was the chance to maintain my wavering balance in a packed metro car.
My beef with this movie lies in the fact that it never seems to reach the lofty perch that it set for itself. It aims to have something to say on a variety of topics, but the main one is the rivalry between real journalists and the blogger culture that is rapidly overtaking them. This was set up pretty well initially, but then the idea is dropped in favor of a rather straight forward thriller. At the end there appears to be a feeble attempt to cram home the idea that the day of the gumshoe reporter is dead and buried, but they might as well have left it out. I'm not sure whether they are saying that bloggers are the new reporters and that we're better for it or not. Frankly, I stopped caring right around the time the movie stopped caring about it. Also, is it just me or are defense contractors getting shelled on both film and TV lately? According to both, they're all staffed with looney, gun-toting thugs who'll kill anybody who threatens to their sacred company. I've worked for defense contractors my entire life, and let me tell ya there's always another company to move on to. No need for indiscriminate murder to save your sweet gig.
State of Play is a meaty, weighty thriller that won't disappoint. It's a bit heavy handed at times, but I believe the performances of Crowe and Mirren more than make up for any deficiencies. Ben Affleck was strong, once again proving that the man can act despite some questionable choices in roles. Rachel McAdams was a little disappointing in that she didn't have nearly enough to do for such a major character. And don't even get me started on Jason Bateman, who I guess had a hole in his schedule he needed to fill. State of Play probably won't do as well in the box office as it's star power would demand, which leads me to wonder if we aren't just seeing the death of the journalist but the death of the big budget political thriller as well?
7/10
