State of Play (2009)

Adapted from the British mini-series of the same name and directed by Kevin Macdonald (no, not the wide-eyed kid in the hall Kevin McDonald, like I at first confusedly thought), State of Play is an engaging and well-acted political mystery from a journalist's point of view. Cal McAffrey (Russel Crowe), a messy, experienced, and well-connected DC journalist, arrives at the murder scene of two unconnected men, one a small-time crook and the other a pizza delivery guy who happened to be biking past. The same day a young red-headed congressional research assistant, Sonia Baker (Maria Thayer), apparently kills herself by jumping in front of a moving subway train. It is soon discovered that while working for Representative Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck), she also became his mistress. Devastated, he is encouraged to pull out of a committee hearing he's organized against the expansive company PointCorp's possible war profiteering.

Fellow Post reporter Della Frye (Rachel McAdams), a young and ambitious blogger, seeks answers about Collins' affair through Cal, who was his college roommate. At first he tells her to bugger off (but in a less British way), but eventually they end up working together when Cal realizes that both deaths could relate back to PointCorp. They dig deeper and deeper through Cal's various connections (including Collins and his wife, Anne [Robin Wright Penn]), finding more and more levels of corruption and secrecy. Both of their lives are threatened, but they continue seeking the truth, going so far as to withhold evidence from the police for the sake of getting the whole story.

I thought State of Play was pretty cool. It's fast-paced and well-plotted, though a little confusing because the mystery has a lot of small elements that added up. I've only seen a snippet of the titular British miniseries, so I'm not sure how it stands as an adaptation. I'd imagine they had to cut a lot out to make it movie-length, and I know that the "death of the print newspaper" subtext was created for the film. At times it felt too dense, which can happen in a book- or miniseries-adaptation, but overall I think the filmmakers did a nice job with the story.

The cast is great- it's always nice to see Rachel McAdams, and I dug the smaller appearances from Helen Mirren as their head editor and Jeff Daniels as Collins' senior Rep. Two best surprises: Jason Bateman (I know right!) as a sleazy connection between Sonia and Collins, and Ben Affleck, who was like... acting. And not pissing me off every time he opened his mouth. Huh. Of course everyone had to take a back seat to Russell Crowe, whom I think is ok, but not particularly special, and kind of annoying. He's fine here, I guess. My biggest issue is that I will never believe Crowe and Affleck are close enough in age to have been college roommates. Plus you can feel Crowe's ego seeping into almost every scene he's in... which is every scene.

State of Play is good, but not mind-blowing. It's an engaging and fun mystery with some good twists, and doesn't take itself too seriously. Some of the plot points were a little too convenient, like how Cal always had some source or insider for whatever he needed to know. I understand that it showcased his "experienced and respected but slightly amoral journalist" persona, but really it just made some things too easy. And I could have done without the little reminiscing dates between Anne and Cal- they weren't necessary except to stir some later conflict between him and Collins. Also there was something about Jeff Daniels' character that I found really obvious from the start, but is revealed later as if it's a big deal. Still, good times and a few nail-biter scenes so definitely worth the watch if you're into it.

One thing I wished for: I had this crazy hope that at some point Cal would call Della and say "That's right! Your case, and my case, ARE THE SAME FUCKING CASE!" a la Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Sadly... my dream did not come true.

4/5