State Of Play

Before State of Play was released (a title which my father, of the Bruce Campbell/My Name Is Bruce-fiasco fame, disliked), I was more than a little disinterested. It's no secret that I don't care much for Russell Crowe. His acting isn't that impressive, and I usually groan whenever I see a trailer for a movie he is staring in, even if the film itself looks good. That said, his presence isn't a deal breaker, and so I went to see State of Play with an open mind. The results were these: better than expected. Overall, I felt the conspiracy the film revolves around was handled well, never getting too ridiculous, which is a good thing in a movie like this. Stupid conspiracies that spiral out of control have ruined more than a few potentially good movies. I'm glad this didn't. The acting by the supporting cast (i.e. not Russell Crowe, though he did fine) was above average. It's always nice to see Rachel McAdams and Helen Mirren. Even ol' Ben Affleck did a decent job. But even with some good talent, the story has to work, and in this case it did. I think the ending was a little too neatly wrapped, but it wasn't unforgivable. State of Play, in the end, had enough to say about the current state of journalism and the problems with privatizing military, so props are due for that. And, to my surprise, this was based on a television series over in the UK. I never would have thought if I hadn't noticed the information in the credits.

Genre - Thriller (2.75)

Screenplay (3)
Acting (3)
Production (3)
Directing (2)