Superb State of Play

State of Play is not only the first bright spot on the movie calendar in months, it’s also the best movie I’ve seen so far this year. Springtime is officially here, and State of Play feels like a breath of fresh air. It’s a superbly crafted thriller with a high pedigree that’s thrilling, emotionally involving, and it has a lot to say about our culture and the lamentable decline of print journalism and solid reporting in the age of incessant blogging, paparazzi and gossip columns. That combination of top-tier performances, timeliness, cultural commentary, first-rate entertainment and old-school star power does the incredible: it carves out a spot for State of Play in the venerable pantheon of moody 1970s thrillers. Films like Three Days of the Condor, The Parallax View, All The President’s Men, Klute, The Conversation, Serpico and Chinatown, made by a few guys named Pollack, Pakula, Coppola, Lumet and Polanski. I’m happy that I get to write about it as my 100^th review for the site.

The film is adapted from a BBC miniseries, and I’m sure everyone who saw the miniseries will be whining that the movie cut this and that and messed up such and such and whatever. I haven’t seen the miniseries, but all I can say is that I would be really surprised and hugely impressed to find that it was significantly better than this film adaptation. The screenplay is adapted by three of the sharpest writers in the movie business: Matthew Michael Carnahan, Tony Gilroy, and Billy Ray. Carnahan knows how to explosively weave politics into a narrative that moves and isn’t overtly didactic, having written The Kingdom and Lions for Lambs; after reinventing the spy genre with his literate, complex Bourne scripts, Gilroy should have won the Oscar for writing and directing Michael Clayton; and Billy Ray wrote and directed Shattered Glass and Breach. These guys are truly talented people.

Various big names were attached to State of Play over the years—including Brad Pitt and Edward Norton and Ed Zwick in the director’s chair—but I can’t imagine a better creative team than the one that ended up making the film. Russell Crowe has his best role since Ben Wade in James Mangold’s 3:10 To Yuma remake, and he delivers one of the best performances of his career as seasoned Washington D.C. newspaperman Cal McAffrey, a guy trying to hold onto his career and old-school work ethic as he’s being replaced by the blogging generation. He works for the fictional Washington Globe (a thinly veiled Washington Post) and is at the mercy of a new corporate management trying to stay in business by sacrificing quality journalism for marketable fluff and online drivel. In her best role since The Queen, Helen Mirren plays his tough editor.

McAffrey exists as the last of a dying breed (always an enjoyable story trope), a renegade dog that is becoming anachronistic in the world he inhabits. Rachel McAdams holds her own as Della Frye, a young blogger at the Globe who at first is completely incompatible with McAffrey, having been brought up on a wholly different set of professional values and journalistic standards. Finally, we have Ben Affleck playing Congressman Stephen Collins, a political bigwig investigating a private defense contractor named PointCorp (think Blackwater or Halliburton). And I know, a lot of people are going to bitch about Ben Affleck, well let me tell you: he hits all the right notes and delivers a first-rate performance. So the guy made some crap a few years ago, who hasn’t? He did a killer job directing Gone Baby Gone and I think if people give him a chance, he will bring us many good things over the years.

But anyway, for anyone who doesn’t know, the film opens with a series of murders. A young kid running scared is professionally gunned down on the streets of Washington. Then Sonia Baker, Collins’ lead researcher, is pushed in front of the Metro. McAffrey gets involved with the story, and he has a personal connection: he was Collins’ roommate in college. When allegations arise that Collins was having an affair with Baker and that she committed suicide because of it, the situation starts to spin out of control. For the media, it’s a killer story that sells. For McAffrey, it’s a lot more complicated. He comes to the aid of his friend only to discover a possible conspiracy. He starts tracking down leads that all point him in the direction that Baker was killed by PointCorp to ruin Collins’ professional life and thereby neutralize him, as currently he stands to cost the company billions of dollars.

Reluctantly at first, McAffrey has to work with Della Frye on the story. Slowly, he comes to mentor her and she proves to be an asset. It’s an enjoyable mentor/apprentice, old lion/young lion relationship to watch progress, but the filmmakers wisely resist the standard temptation to turn it into a romance thing. It’s much more meaningful that they handle it this way.

Twists after twists keep coming, but the plot never overshadows the complex emotional dynamics and layered interrelationships of the characters. Director Kevin MacDonald, who made The Last King of Scotland, is smart enough to let the actors power the story and not get in the way by announcing his presence with flashy camerawork. His direction is clean, confident and effective. The film was shot by Rodrigo Prieto both on 35mm and on Genesis, Panavision’s super high-end digital camera, which has been gaining ground in the last few years, being used to strong effect on films like The Lookout and Déjà Vu.

There are several excellent scenes of nerve-frying suspense, and the ending is unexpected and powerful. State of Play boasts an incredible supporting cast too, including Robin Wright Penn, Viola Davis, and Harry Lennix. I was really impressed and satisfied by this film, and I would strongly recommend it. It’s timely and fun. Stay tuned for the end credit sequence, which shows the process of newspapers going to press and plays like a eulogy for a noble, dying trade.

See Kaitlyn’s review here!