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Review of State of Play
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There hasn't been a good political/conspiracy thriller in a while. The last good one I can think of is The Contender which is arguably Joan Allen's finest hour. After seeing numerous commercials for State of Play, I felt ambivalent. I felt like, "it has an amazing cast, but so what?" But it was between this, 17 Again (no thanks) and Crank 2: High Voltage (Statham is the man, but again, no thanks.) I was pleasantly surprised to find that State of Play is easily the best film of it's kind since The Contender.
Russell Crowe and Rachel McAdams play reporters for The Washington Globe working on a story that involves the murder of a congressman's (Ben Affleck) research aide/mistress. There are conflicts of interest, conspiracies and double crosses everywhere and the line between guilty and innocent is blurred for many of the characters. All standard for a political thriller, sure, but once again, it's the cast that makes all the difference here.
Everyone shines in his or her role, no matter how big or small. Crowe and McAdams are excellent as their characters butt heads initially when Della Frye (McAdams) wants to sensationalize the story and Cal McAffery (Crowe) wants to report just the facts. Playing their boss is Helen Mirren who just owns every scene she's in, she was by far the most fun to watch in this flick. Robin Wright-Penn also brought a lot of depth to what could have been a thankless role as the congressman's wife. And I can't not mention Jason Bateman's turn as Dominic Foy; it's a small role but an important one and Bateman makes the most of his time on screen and then some.
So why haven't I mentioned Ben Affleck yet? Because the man has earned his own paragraph for this review. Remember how over the last few years he's been kind of a joke when it came to being an actor? How he was overexposed and had a string of awful films? Well, if you go and check out State of Play you will witness the redemption of Ben Affleck. The man is a joke no more as he brings an understated energy and intensity to the role of congressman Stephen Collins. You can feel it in every scene; he has the look of a man determined to show everyone that he can act with the best of them and he does just that in State of Play.
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