State of Play :: movie review 2009  State of Play starts with a young man running; bouncing off cars as he runs into an alley where he hides behind a dumpster where he thinks is safe. Then he is shot by man who then shoots a bicycle rider who happens to accidentally witness themurder as he rides past. We then are taken to Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe) driving to the murder scene in his old Saab, he is a reporter with a factious newspaper the Washington Globe based on the Washington Post and he is writing about the murders. Then when Congressman (Ben Affleck) Stephen Collins’s mistress fails in front of a subway train, a chain of events unfold that hint that a conspiracy is being manufactured by a defense contractor that provides Security in Afghanistan and Iraq, which the congressman is currently investigating . Cal reluctantly teams up with the newspaper’s web blogger Della Frye Rachel McAdams who questions Cal about his college roommate Congressman Collins and after a rocky start they are immersed together into the story of a lifetime. This is a well written story, with strong performances, clever camera work, and a compelling musical score. Russell Crowe is very believable in this role and looks and sounds as if he was been writing for a newspaper for years, he really is one of today’s best actors. Ben Affleck gives a breakout performance and is really exceptional as the congressman, I do think Mr. Affleck will receive some kind of award for the role at year’s end.

I read in doing some research for this movie review, that Brad Pitt was originally cast to play the role of reporter Cal and Edward Norton was going to play the Congressman, well this was a break for both Crowe and Affleck because this turned out to be a great movie and these were very well written rich, characters that are the stuff actors’ dream of. The scenes that are shoot in the newsroom really pull you into this world and have such an air of realism that the you can almost smell the ink from the presses and the clicking of Reporter McAffrey’s ancient keyboard will ring true for those of us that had one of those clunky, noisy beasts to type on for so many years. The pace of this film is what I was fascinated with, it give you just enough of the story to tease you into amazement and has characters that are likeable and you do start to care about what happens to them. This is a really well done film with a story that was relatively still easy to follow and yet was still intelligent enough to engage even a jaded film goer like myself.