Review: State of Play (2009)

Director: Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland)

Cast: Russell Crowe (Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind), Ben Affleck (Good Will Hunting, Armageddon), Rachel McAdams (Wedding Crashers, The Notebook), Helen Mirren (The Queen, Gosford Park), Robin Wright Penn (Beowulf, Unbreakable), Michael Berresse (Kiss Me Kate), Jason Bateman (Arrested Development, Hancock), Jeff Daniels (Pleasantville, Dumb & Dumber)

The Deal: U.S. Congressman Stephen Collins (Affleck) is the future of his political party, but when his lead researcher dies, it's discovered she was Collins' mistress, and there may be more to the death than it seems. Cal McAffrey (Crowe), a veteran investigative reporter and close friend to Collins teams up with fresh young reporter Della Fry (McAdams) to investigate the possibility of murder, but what they find runs even deeper than they ever could have imagined.

Thoughts: This film flew under the radar for awhile, but then out of nowhere I started hearing positive things, and for good reason. It's not a masterpiece, but it's engaging and entertaining. Sure, the ending isn't anything we couldn't have guessed, but the path traveled to get there was fairly original and almost always interesting. It seemed like every 15 minutes a new piece of the puzzle was discovered, sometimes really changing the dynamic of the character's relationships. Overall, I was happily surprised with the quality of the film.

Usually Affleck is a reason for me to avoid a film (who else remembers the Daredevil days?), but I feel he's recommitted himself to playing better roles. He does a solid job as a Congressman, and I have no quarrels with him here. Crowe has never blown me away with his acting, but he's always above average and delivers quality to all of his performances. His chemistry works well with McAdams, and the two form an interesting investigative duo. It's the typical grizzled veteran mentoring the fresh meat but ultimately becoming friends story line we commonly see, but it's updated for present times (old school reporter with fresh new blogger) and it works well here and doesn't feel old or boring.

Seeing as much of the film revolved around the newspaper office and its goings, I really enjoyed the credits. It followed the final story as it goes from computer to delivery trucks, and you get to see all the steps that go into making the newspaper. The headlines and paper even give a bit of information as to how some things play out. It was a cool way to roll the credits, as it was both semi-informative but also extremely interesting just to see the process in action.

Verdict: It's a good film film that remains interesting even when the plot may seem a tad predictable. The performances are all solid and it's definitely worth renting when it comes out. ☆☆☆☆