STATE OF PLAY REVIEW

“State of Play” is part dark-alley journalism story and part suspense thriller , with adultery, conspiracy, and the rivalry between print journalism and blogs tossed in. A crusading young congressman (a thinner Ben Affleck, with lips pressed together in resolute determination) is investigating a Blackwater-ty e private security company when his chief researcher, who is also his mistress, os pushed in front of an oncoming subway train. Was she murdered by the company , which is seeking billions of dollars in government contracts?

WRATH OF GOD MONEY...

The investigativee reporter Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe), a close friend of the congressman’s, ge s on the case and chases the main issue—private security’s potential domestic role—while his acidulous editor (Helen Mirren), worried about her newspaper s survival, wants to pursue only the tabloid side of the story. “State of Play” s based on a six-hour BBC miniseries, and I was gratified by the sharp dialogue and acting .


The three screenwriters (Matthew Michael Carnahan, Tony Gilroy, and Billy Ra ) may have been trying to work too many plot strands into two hours; in any case, “State of Play,” which was directed by Kevin Macdonald, is both overstuffed a d inconclusive.

NO, YOU'RE OVERSTUFFED AND INCONCLUSIVE.



As is the fashion now, the filmmakers develop the narrative in tiny fragments. Something is hinted at—a relationship, a motive, an event in the past—then the movie rushes ahead and produces another fragment filled with hint , and then another. The filmmakers send dozens of clues into the air at once, but they feel no obligation to resolve what they tell us. Recent movies like “Syriana,” “Quantum of Solace,” and “Duplicity” are scripted and edited as overly intricate puzzles, and I’ve heard many people complain that the struggle to understand the plot becomes the principal experience of watching such films. In “State of Play ” you’re excited by all manner of journalistic derring-do—tense interviews, and put-ons that elicit information—but the final twists feel disconnected fr m what has been so laboriously and portentously set up. The potential danger pos d by private security firms, for instance, is negligently dropped as an issue. The dénouement feels like another fragment, as if the movie were unwilling to end.

JUST TOO SHORT IS WHAT YOU MEAN. IT'S A GOOD FILM. CONFUCING BECAUSE NOBODY CAN SIT THROUGH A THREE HOUR MOVIE. SHOULD HAVE BEEN A MINI SERIES. BUT THAT'S THE QUANDRY OF COMMERCIAL FILMS. QUANDRY. PROBLEMS WITHOUT SOLUTIONS. SOMETHING LIBERALS CANNOT FATHOM, OR TOLERATE, OR WHATEVER. LIBERALS? I DON'T MEAN THAT REALLY. JUST A GENERAL TERM, LIKE PEOPLE WHO DON'T BELIEVE IN QUANDRIES, AND IN SOME CASES, IN EVIL.

OK. JUST FUCKING MYSELF. DON'T WORRY. I WON'T FORCE THE TOPIC ON ANYONE. JUST AGREE AND SHUT UP. IT'S AN AGREEABLE ENOUGH TRUTH.


“State of Play” can be readily enjoyed . Jason Bateman is skittishly brilliant as a cynical public-relations guy who panics when he realizes that he has got in over his head; Rachel McAdams is a cocky blogger who has to learn how much work goes into actual reporting; Helen Mirren brings a wrathful British tartness to the goading of her staff. Russell Crowe’s body is shapeless now, his complexion pasty, his hair long and lank; he looks like a dumpling in a wig.

JUST LIKE CHRLIZE THERON IN MONSTER. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS GUY. DUMPLING?? PASTY?? SHAPELESS? IT'S ACTING YOU JERK.


There’s enormous life in his eyes and his voice. Crowe has an animal quickness and sensitivity, a threatening way of penetrating what someone is up to, a feeling for weakness in friends as well as opponents. He is every inch the great journalist he is paid to portray.


Nobody stands up to a Russel Crowe character.

He's Jack Nicholson without being hideous about it.


HE'S THE SAME CHARACTER AS IN BODY OF LIES,the OTHER OVERWEIGHT PORTRAYAL. SEE, THE IDEA IS TO BE UNDERESTIMATED. THE POINT IS THE THREATENING STYLE, PENETRATING WHAT SOMEONE IS UP TO. HIS ANIMAL QUICKNESS. THAT'S WHAT THE MOVIE IS ABOUT, AND OF COURSE IT WORKS. YOU GO TO SEE THIS GUY FUCK WITH EVERYONE WITH THAT SUBTLE-SLY GRIN AND THE PRESIDENTIAL WINNER IN EVERY EPISODE QUALITY AND STYLE. ENORMOUS LIFE IN HIS EYES AND HIS VOICE INDEED. STUPID MOVIE REVIEWER.