Cal McAffrey (Russel Crowe) is working as a journalist for The Washington Globe. He’s been in the business for years. The rise of blogs written by staff of the Globe are a threat to him as they are mostly gossip with no proper investigation done.
When he was still in college he was close with Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck), who has managed to become a succesful senator and is leading a public hearing about the privatisation of the army. When Collins’s assistant suddenly dies it becomes very clear that she meant a lot to him. The media swarm him and as he needs to escape all the attention he turns to his old friend McAffrey.
When he convinces McAffrey that the death of his assistant was no accident the journalist decides to investigate the true reason of her death. It’s the start of uncovering a big story in which he has to go to the limits of his friendship in order to discover the truth.
State of Play is a captivating thriller in which political intrigue and proper journalism play are the main ingredients. The suspense slowly builds as Cal discovers more about the truth. The movie doesn’t have many action scenes, which is not a bad thing as it can focus on the acting and a web full of intrigue.
Crowe teams up with Rachel McAdams, who is excellent in her role as blogger who gets her chance to show Cal that she can do “proper” journalistic work.
Originally this movie would star Brad Pitt and Edward Norton (teaming them up again after Fight Club), but because of the writers strike in 2007 and further delays both were replaced by Crowe and Affleck.
The movie really had that “old school” thriller vibe to it and was very well written. An excellent movie to watch on a friday night.
Score: 7
Share this article:
I really enjoyed State of Play – you’re right that it had that old-school feel. Didn’t see the original TV series but it didn’t dampen my enjoyment of it.
I didn’t even know about the original TV series, but I definitely enjoyed it as well.