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Noir meets newsroom mania in State Of Play, a thoroughly
engrossing nailbiter, though the dark details that eventually
come to light pale in comparison to massive narrative expectations
preceding them. Based on the acclaimed BBC drama series
of the same name, State Of Play, with its many threads and
suspenseful pacing, comes just about as close to fast forward
simultaneous multiple perspective reality as a movie can
get. Russell Crowe glams down his macho leading man image
as jaded, stringy haired brains over brawn scruffy DC roving,
or rather prowling, defiant vigilante reporter Cal McAffrey,
at the barely fictitious big city rag, The Washington Globe.
When a petty thief turns up dead in an alley, a passing
witness on a bike finds himself in a coma after being shot
too by this mysterious figure with highly cultivated sniper
skills, and the young research assistant babe of rising
star Congressman Collins (Ben Affleck) falls under a subway
train, McAffrey is less enthused than usual about getting
on the case. It seems that Collins is an old college buddy
whose wife (Robin Wright Penn) had been shacking up with
McAffrey on the sly. And the guilt ridden reluctant stud
recoils from pursuing a story rapidly morphing into dirty
laundry involving tabloid gossip that Collins was having
an affair with his dead assistant.***
If you're still following all this lurid seat of government
hanky panky, hang in there, because there's muc h more.
Collins also happens to be heading an investigative committee
ferreting out the sinister dealings of Point Corp, a massive
security contracting corporation that has cleaned up financially
by providing a US government outsourced privatized army
of its own during the current Middle East 'Muslim Terror
Gold Rush.' And as that war wanes, the predatory defense
enterprise is seeking to move its insidious monopoly operations
stateside by militarizing Homeland Security.***
Which leaves the audience, along with Crowe's agonizing
reporter, with the huge, never a dull moment predicament.
That is to say, was the research assistant determined to
commit suicide after being tossed aside by loverboy Collins,
did she know too much about Point Corp and so had to be
tossed under a subway train to silence her, or was it a
case of any, all, or none of the above?***
Wading into the murky waters to eagerly sort out all
these toxic antics while sexing up the dull as doornails
newsroom, is gossip minded, scoop obsessed rookie reporter
Della (Rachel McAdams) on sidekick duty with an initially
far from enthused McAffrey. Helen Mirren also throws in
her two cents, whether solicited or not, as the bossy newspaper
editor showing her stuff as a woman bent on keeping intermittent
loose cannon McAffrey in line.***
More Clark Kent than Superman, Russell Crowe's high
IQ, pen is the sword amateur gumshoe reporter doesn't hesitate
when necessary to tone down his tough guy persona, and effectively
play stresse d out girlie man to the menacing baddies. Though
the political and corporate scandals which loom so large
throughout, and who exactly is playing whom, wimp out in
comparison as director Kevin Macdonald (The Last King Of
Scotland) and co-screenwriter Tony Gilroy (The Bourne Trilogy)
tease with ballsy controversy but eventually opt for not
making waves. But pot shots taken at the online rumor mongering
that passes for journalism these days, sleazy lackey publicists,
and the dismal state of backroom corporate and Congressional
conspiracies, stylishly cut through the tangled scenarios
like a deadly dagger.***
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