State of Play 2009
I enjoyed this movie more than most people because I had already seen the 6-hour BBC miniseries it is based on through Netflix. So, for me, I enjoyed seeing how they changed it and how it was different (new cast, set in the US instead of UK, etc.). I think if I had not seen the earlier work, I would not have liked the movie as much. Whereas the miniseries was able to take its time, the movie crams as much as possible from the series into just over two hours. In some ways that is a shame because there are some good characters here that don’t get a chance to develop as much, but at the same time it really helps the movie pack a wallop and the pace rarely lets up.
The movie centers around a fictional newspaper in Washington, DC investigating a Congressman and some local murders. Russell Crowe plays an old-time reporter with a messy desk and connections throughout the police department. Rachel McAdams plays a cute young blogger for the online edition. Crowe is distractingly fat and slovenly which seems unnecessary. Instead of getting Crowe, maybe they could have gotten an actual fat and slovenly American? He has a desk stacked with stuff and uses a 16-year-old computer. That might have worked when you had writers that still used a typewriter, but a computer? If they were going in that direction they should have had him using an old Mac and putting the story on a floppy disk. I digress.
The Congressman they are investigating is Ben Affleck who seems out of his element as well. On paper there is no reason Affleck couldn’t be a Congressman. He is young, but he is supposed to be young (for a Congressman). I don’t think he’s quite up to the job though. Ditto Jason Bateman as a PR guy who enjoys a gender-bending nightlife. Helen Mirren is impeccable as the newspaper’s editor and Robin Wright is solid in a small but key role as Affleck’s wife.
Despite some unfortunate casting (found out later that Crowe and Affleck were last-minute replacements for Brad Pitt and Edward Norton; hmmmm), the story is really the main character and it is a zinger. It gets very complicated very quickly with any number of different developments and twists along the way. They are packing 6 hours of material in, so the pace stays taut and I still missed one of the main developments at the end until I read about it later.
Anyway, this was fun for me to watch even though I was pretty sure I knew how it would turn out. I’m not sure it would be as much fun to watch the movie and then the miniseries and the miniseries is probably better (production values not as good, but richer content at least), so if you want to watch the miniseries at all, watch it first. If you don’t see the miniseries, maybe the casting won’t seem as odd. I had fun watching this all over again, so I will give it an A-, and have no idea how I would think of the movie otherwise. I think I would enjoy the fast pace and depth of intrigue.
Written: 26 Jun 2010
Owned on: Blu-ray, Digital