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 Cal
McAffrey has inadvertently discovered an unlikely tie between an alleged
drug deal gone bad and the purported suicide of a Washington aide. The
reporter for the Washington Globe soon learns the connection leads to
the doorstep of an ambitious young politician and old college buddy,
Congressman Stephen Collins. McAffrey unearths a link between the
murders and PointCorp, a Blackwater-esque private military firm trying
to gain ground stateside. The paramilitary organisation needs
congressional approval in order to do business with the government;
enabling them to earn billions of dollars by privatising and taking over
domestic defense contracts. PointCorp is enduring a series of hearings
spearheaded by Congressman Collins when Collins’ aide is killed.
McAffrey shelters his troubled friend, even offering advice on how to
handle the media, but soon the congressman’s proximity raises questions
about McAffrey’s personal loyalty and professional ethics when the scoop
of the year is living under his own roof. McAffrey’s own inquiries into
the story find him becoming perilously embroiled in the investigation as
a target for the murderers, as well as the police, from whom he has
hidden vital evidence. Are the murders truly connected? How deep is
the scandal between Congressman Collins and his affair with the recently
deceased aide? How far across the line will the news team go to protect
their scoop and to what lengths will the murderous cabal go in order to
protect their secrets?
A thriller that’s framed with
the blessings of contemporaneity, State of Play is smart, taut and
tremendously entertaining. A sharp script gives Russell Crowe some
great moments as McAffrey, a paunchy, hangdog newsman who’s got ink for
blood. His paper is feeling the heat of the changing times, when home
delivery is quickly being replaced by homepages. McAffrey is lucky to
be valuable enough to his irascible editor, Cameron Lynne {played
with beautiful ruthlessness by Helen Mirren} to be fairly safe as
writers are let go with each circulation drop. McAffrey greets the
overtures of fresh-faced news blogger, Della Frye {Rachel McAdams}
with utter contempt when she tries to dig into a potential political
scandal after realising that McAffrey has ties to Collins. Questions of
morality, ethics and sacrifice are nicely addressed with a good amount
of tension derived from our hero possibly being dispatched by a killer
on the loose. The characters’ personal loose ends within the story are
tied with some unexpected knots. The threat of a shadowy private
military company living by their own rules and codes being given
authority on US soil is truly creepy. We’re shown the modern dilemma of
old guard press watching their readership dwindle in favour of bright
young things who’ve heard of neither Lexis nor Nexis, but who produce
salacious, eye-grabbing copy every hour at bargain rates. Editor Lynne
will never have the expensive task of holding up the presses for copy
from dewy-eyed Frye as she does with old salt McAffrey. McAdams isn’t
given terribly much to do as the ambitious blogger who doesn’t know what
hit her when Crowe’s McAffrey drafts her as an apprentice; exposing her
to moral grayness she never knew existed. McAdams is suitably spunky
and her frown of disapproval is pretty adorable. Give Frye about 20
more years around McAffrey and you’ll get Helen Mirren’s editor. In far
too few scenes, Dame Helen Mirren spars electrically with Crowe and for
all their alleged adversity, the spark between these two brilliant
actors is evidence they’re having a lot of fun. There is a small, juicy
bit by the ever-delightful Jason Bateman as a sleazy publicist with
fingers in too many pies. His unctuous courting of power and favour
blows up in numerous faces around Washington. State of Play also gives
us Ben Affleck at his best since 2006’s Hollywoodland; he’s perfectly
cast as the political rising star, Collins. Like the natural child of
Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy, Collins’ personal foibles and tendency
toward the spotlight get in the way of earnest political intentions.
The one nagging off note to the whole proceedings was the visible age
difference between Crowe and Affleck. Regardless of the touches of
silver artfully applied to Affleck’s coiffure, there’s simply no way I
believed for a second that he and Crowe were ever college flatmates,
exchanging Roxy Music CDs and competing for the affections of Robin
Wright Penn, who plays Collins’ wife. Crowe, bedraggled, out of shape
and sporting a leonine mane of messy curls, looks more like Affleck’s
dad than a contemporary. Perhaps Affleck’s apparent youth worked in the
favour of another subplot wherein Mrs. Collins has skeletons of her own
to hide having illicitly shagged McAffrey in days gone by. Wright Penn
is lovely as the wife standing by another philandering politico, but she
glows in her scenes with the better-matched Crowe.
Luckily, a sharp script and
top-flight performances helmed by Kevin Macdonald, director of 2006’s
excellent The Last King of Scotland, as well as the original BBC
miniseries on which this film is based, are enough to suspend minor
disbelief. State of Play’s thrills, neat twists and smart, wry humour
provide loads of entertainment and the infusion of topical subject
matter leaves food for thought once the movie’s over.
~ The Lady Miz Diva
April 17th 2009
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