Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009
"State of Play"
Based on the BBC miniseries, this story of political scandal is sort of a throwback. It is told from the floor of a newsroom. Russell Crowe plays an old-school journalist, putting the role of a newspaper man in perspective. This is a timely film that tells the story of newspapers on the verge of nonexistence - holding on by being the last/best defender of the truth in a world filled with part-time bloggers and television news that seems to be firmly on the political left or right. Helen Mirren is Crowe's editor and a hard-nosed boss who just wants the story in black and white on her desk. Rachel McAdams, with her cute-first approach, hits the mark as one of the aforementioned bloggers covering celebrities - she is looking for creditability and thinks that nabbing a front page headline will give her that. Ben Affleck takes a minute to get used to as a senator in the midst of scandal, but he makes it work by his third scene in. This is a thriller and all the components are here - murder, sex, cover-ups and Jason Bateman as a kinky fetish freak. Viewers with black ink stains on your fingers that think the Holy Quattro of truthiness in cinema are the newspaper movies - "Citizen's Kane", "All the President's Men", "Absence of Malice" and "The Paper" - will love this one. To every other audience just seeking a good thriller - you will find it here.
TRAILER
