State of Play

This film, although entertaining, blazes no new territory. It's got political and sexual intrigue, an evil para-military organization modeled after the infamous Blackwater corporation, and of course, rumpled reporters, the main one being Russell Crowe. Ben Affleck plays Congressman Stephen Collins, whose congressional sub-committee is looking into Point Corp, the stand in for Blackwater. Point Corp, of course, won't stand for this, as they are apparently behind a series of murders, carried out in order to thwart the congressman's investigation. It's up to Cal McAffrey, played by Mr. Crowe, to uncover who's really doing what, and to whom. Oh, and to complicate things Messrs. Collins and McAffrey were roommates in college, and, McAffrey had a brief fling with Collins' future wife, played by Robin Wright Penn. To say that conflicts of interests abound would be an understatement. In spite of all this, the story was both fun to watch, and relatively easy to follow, just complicated enough to make it interesting and not so to the point where you you have to ask yourself, what just happened? There wasn't a lot of character development, but then again these films generally don't do a lot of that. For instance, we know that Mr. Crowe is a great reporter because he has the messiest desk imaginable, and drinks whisky out of a juice glass. The film also addresses the issue of the desperately troubled newspaper business as Cal has to share the story with his paper's resident website blogger. The film might also make you think about some of this nation's practices concerning it's military as you dig in for that last handful of popcorn.

Rating - 3 Stars