Movie Review - State of Play (2009)

starring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren, Robin Wright Penn, Jason Bateman, and Jeff Daniels

Written by Matthew Michael Carnahan and Tony Gilroy

Directed by Kevin MacDonald

I really want to like movies like State of Play. Smart thrillers are my favorite genre (I can thank Alfred Hitchcock for that). Because of that, I'll be the first to admit that I'm sometimes overly critical of thrillers. That being said, this one was a bit of a let-down.

Russell Crowe is Cal McAffrey, a reporter for the Washington Globe, who gets put on the story of the murder of Congressman Stephen Collins's aide. The Congressman (played by Affleck), who was having an affair with the aide, happens to be Cal's buddy from college. Although they're friends, there's a somewhat shaky history there as Cal has slept with Rep. Collins's wife (Wright Penn) long ago. Afraid that Cal will be unable to fully focus on the story because of the personal connection, the Globe's editor (Mirren) puts budding reporter Della (McAdams) on the case with him. There's a whole bunch of deception and a few twists here and there to keep the audience on their toes.

The acting, for the most part, was all well above average. Crowe was quite good (the role was originally supposed to be Brad Pitt's, but he dropped out a week before shooting...I can't imagine Pitt in that role). Affleck is decent as well. I could stare at Rachel McAdams and Helen Mirren all day (yes, I know Helen Mirren has to be at least 60, but I think she's hot..sue me...and I've been crushing on McAdams since Red Eye). Despite their attractiveness, only Mirren succeeds in this flick as the bitchy, powerful editor. McAdams was given a stereotypical role and she wasn't able to rise above it...some of her line readings and body language were laughable. There's also a great cameo from Jason Bateman as a sleezeball who holds a key to unraveling the mystery of the aide's death.

It's a shame that with the great acting, there couldn't be a great script for them to work with. The film starts out promisingly enough, but the middle 45 minutes are filled with nothing but leads that turn out to be red herrings for our two reporters. And the end twist...I didn't really care. Even though I didn't really see it coming, it was obvious (if that makes sense...it doesn't, I know). Which, in one respect is a good thing because the writers weren't trying to twist the story into something implausible. But on the other hand, there didn't really need to be any twist at all. It kind of fell flat instead of being a "Holy crap!" moment. I will give the film credit, however, for being neither too simplistic nor incredibly confusing. In a lot of these thrillers aimed at adults, writers feel like they need to be constantly be testing the viewers' memories...and then I feel stupid for not remembering peoples' names or how they fit into the plot. This film found a very good balance at being neither too easy nor too difficult to follow.

Still, despite the somewhat lower rating below, I'd recommend this movie solely for the acting chops on display. Add to that, it's a smart adult thriller and I'd rather see more of them than most of the junk that's out in theaters today.

The RyMickey Rating: C+