Phil Mercer

Thursday, April 23, 2009

State of Play (Cert 12a)

 

A few years ago now the BBC produced a political / crime thriller called State of Play. Written by Paul Abbott and directed by David Yates. 6 years later and Universal Studios got there mits on to it and surprisingly managed to sub it down rather well from 6 hours to 2 and translate it across the pond.

We welcome in an all star cast that take on familiar characters.

The film is now set in Washington, D.C. and tells of Stephen Collins (Affleck), a fast-rising United States Congressman whose mistress (Maria Thayer), a former research assistant, is found dead in suspicious circumstances.

During a probe into a series of seemingly unrelated murders, Cal McAffrey (Crowe), an investigative journalist and Collins' former friend, finds himself tasked with solving the case.

By cutting the plot down a little, MacDonald has managed to keep the spirit of the original but give it a certain pace and also throw in a few very up to date comments as the film progresses.

Russell Crowe very good although in his usual way, threw himself in to the role and got very chubby for it. An indication that most of the news print journalists I know have a rather sedentary life. The downfall is Ben Affleck who look the part (although feels a little young) of a congressman but failed to get me to feel sympathetic towards him at all.

Producer - Andrew Hauptman
Director - Kevin MacDonald
Starring - Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren
Robin Wright Penn, Jason Bateman, Jeff Daniels

6.5/10

Labels: Film Movie

# posted by Phil @ 2:47 pm

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