Susan Granger’s review of “State of Play” (Universal Pictures)
When Sonia Baker (Maria Thayer), the pretty research assistant/mistress of Philadelphia Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) is run over by a Washington, D.C. subway in front of hundreds of witnesses, veteran newspaper reporter Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe) reluctantly teams up with newbie political, highly opinionated gossip blogger Della Frye (Rachel McAdams) to look into how she wound up under that train. Did she really commit suicide or is there some connection with the shooting of a young black man on the same day?
Based on Paul Abbott’s far-better 2003 BBC miniseries that’s been consecutively condensed by a seasoned triumvirate of screenwriters (Tony Gilroy, Matthew Michael Carnahan and Billy Ray) and tautly directed by Kevin Macdonald (“The Last King of Scotland”), it’s a melodramatic thriller that’s filled with unexpected – and improbable – twists, turns and government conspiracies, since it seems the victim had connections to a Blackwater-like military enforcement corporation called PointCorp – think Halliburton or Bechtel – that Cal has been investigating.
Russell Crowe’s terrific as the slobby, double-cheeseburger-with-chili gobbling, whiskey-soaked journalist who’s been on the metro beat too long, while Robin Wright Penn shines as Anne, Congressman Collins’ shocked wife, who happens to be an old flame of Cal’s, with Helen Mirren as the hard-driving Washington Globe editor, under pressure from the paper’s new corporate ownership. Jeff Daniels turns up as a priggishly Christian congressman but it’s Jason Bateman who steals scenes as a sleazy, outrageously bisexual publicist. Unfortunately, Ben Affleck is the weak link, coming across as far too lightweight and unseasoned to play an allegedly charismatic politician and too young to have been Crowe’s college roommate. Crowe’s 45 and Affleck’s 36 – and the generational differences are obvious.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “State of Play” is a somewhat incoherent, sinister 6. Just don’t compare it with more credible journalism-themed movies like “All the President’s Men,” “The Parallax View,” “Absence of Malice,” “Zodiac” or even the Cary Grant/Rosalind Russell classic comedy “His Girl Friday.”
