State of Play - dir. Kevin MacDonald
Here be spoilers!
A few evenings ago, I went to see State of Play, the new thriller starring Russell Crowe. Crowe plays Cal McAffrey a journalist at the ailing Washington Globe newspaper. One day, a Congressional researcher named Sonia Baker (Maria Thayer) dies after falling under a tube train. Did she fall or was she pushed? The CCTV cameras can't tell as at the time of her fall, she was standing on the platform's one blind spot.
Baker worked for Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck). When he tearfully announces her death, the media begins to suspect that he was more than merely her employer. And on this occasion, the media is correct. Collins is the chairman of an official enquiry into the workings of PointCorp, a defence contractor. Baker was his chief researcher into the company and also his mistress. But she was even more than that...
McAffrey is a down at heel journalist who is investigating a seemingly unconnected murder in the capital. Rachel McAdams is his colleague Della Frye who is in charge of the Globe's online content. And at the outset, never the twain shall meet. Not for the first time, the old school media holds the new in disdain! However, when it is found that the death of Baker is connected to the murders that McAffrey is investigating, he and Frye are forced to work together.
State of Play is a competent thriller. Not of the quality of a Ridley Scott film, but has enough twists and turns to keep one interested in the story. Most importantly, there is also some good humour to lighten the dark mood of the story. That story gives us a congressman who is not all that he seems (but really so bad?), a newspaper compromising its editorial standards for money, a corporation that will let nothing get in the way of its pursuit of money and people at the mercy of the powerful.
The performances of the actors are uniformly good. Russell Crowe really does grizzled well but I must say that when Brennan Brown (Andrew Pell) appeared, he had uttered not a word before a ripple of laughter spread throughout the cinema. This is because Brown is the lead character in the ubiquitous pre-performance Orange Mobile Phone adverts. Brown's character in State of Play was a serious one but with the Orange advert fresh in one's mind, it was simply impossible to take him seriously in his role. The Orange adverts are splendid but if Brown wants to have a career in film, he needs to quit them ASAP.
State of Play is informed by the American action in Iraq. It joins Syriana, Body of Lies and goodness knows how many other films it that catagory. The West's post '9/11' engagement with the Middle East is our new cold war. When The Spy Who Came in From The Cold (1963) was published, it introduced a readership more used to the glamour of James Bond to a much earthier vision of the cold war struggle. Ever since the 11th September attacks, we have been used to seeing bleak visions of the world in which we now live. I wonder if someone will reverse the trend and give us a new James Bond. Or should I say 'old James Bond' as the new one is part of the bleak trend.
