"State of Play" is a deft political thriller showcasing the vital role journalism can play in unraveling a scandal buried deep on Capitol Hill whose culprits extend beyond the members of Congress. Starring Russell Crowe, as the weathered veteran reporter, and Rachel McAdams, as the cub reporter just starting out, the film also illustrates a current 'state of play' in journalism, namely the war between print journalism and online journalism. Crowe's character, Cal McCaffrey, typifies the old school journalist with his 1990 Saab doubling as a second office on wheels as he tracks down sources and leads, the car littered with crumpled papers and Cheetos bags, steno notebook in hand. Della Frye (Rachel McAdams) embodies the new school as a blogger for their paper (the fictional Washington Globe)--she is churning out copy every hour, constantly writing and updating readers via the newspaper's online blog. Although McCaffrey initially regards Frye as a hack - simply because of the medium she embraces - he comes to begrudgingly respect her and they work together on the expose at the center of the movie.
It is a good movie and it makes the case that a good journalist is comparable to a good cop in the way he or she goes about doing their job: this point is made in the smallest of details - seven minutes into the film, they zoom in on McCaffrey's cluttered desk...lingering for just a moment on a copy of the book, "Blue Blood" by Edward Conlon...a Harvard grad turned Bronx cop who wrote a bestseller about his experiences as a cop...very nice detail for any book nerds familiar with Conlon as a way to show the manner in which McCaffrey approaches his reporting as patrolling a local beat - to entire scenes: one that comes to mind is about 45-50 minutes into the film and is a showdown between the lead reporters & EIC and the local police.
Crowe is excellent, which is no surprise; McAdams is very, very good. I liked the pairing of these two actors (initially I was a little bit unsure of McAdams in this role, even though I like her tremendously) and the dynamic between them. The film features other big names in supporting parts: Helen Mirren, Ben Affleck, Robin Wright Penn, Jeff Daniels, and Jason Bateman. Of this acting 'who's who', they were all good - particularly Penn & Affleck - however I slightly objected to Bateman's casting for his role. No bones with Bateman or his acting...just would have liked to see someone slightly smarmier in that role...I just don't know that the choice of Bateman was believable.
See this one!
P.S. Point of disclosure: This film is based upon the British miniseries of the same name which aired in 2003 and is supposed to be excellent. Will update you if/when I watch it to see how the two compare.
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