Review: State of Play

Going into State of Play, I was not exactly sure what I would think of it. I knew it had a great cast and one of those trailers that makes a movie look very intense, but I did not know much more than that. Basically, Russell Crowe is the old timer journalist for the Washington Post who is college pals with a Congressman (Ben Affleck). Affleck is looking to take down PointCorp, a mercenary program profiting off war when his lead researcher ends up dead and it is leaked that he had an affair with her. Now, a young blogger at the paper (Rachel McAdams) goes to Crowe to try to get answers. Crowe is reluctant on first, but the two start to unravel a story that begins to interweave with and impact personal lives. Crowe and McAdams try to break the story without breaking the law (too much) and keeping their lives.

This is one of those movies where you start watching, and then suddenly you realize youre basically sitting in the next row you're so far on the edge of your seat. The story is so well mapped out and its the perfect amount of mystery where you as a viewer can put the pieces together, but you still get a few big curveballs thrown at you. It also has one of those early twists where Crowe and McAdams are working on two stories that suddenly become the same story (or a Johnny Gossamer novel for those Kiss Kiss Bang Bang fans). The story comes together really nicely, and they are not afraid to throw in one last twist.

Not only did this movie have great performances by the main cast (Affleck, Crowe, McAdams and Helen Mirren), but it also had some very strong supporting roles. Jeff Daniels played a great congressman with his own secrets. Jason Bateman played a dopey PR guy who becomes a big piece of the puzzel. It also features Michael Weston (Kenny the cop from Garden State) as another journalist). Overall, the cast puts on a great performance. There is a line in the movie that says "those are the kind of cases you only find in movies." Once they said that I realized how real this whole movie felt, which was pretty sweet.

See if you like:
The Departed

Rating:
8/10