Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck Bring Spark to Mediocre ‘State of Play’

Rating: 3.0/5.0

CHICAGO – I’ll be the first critic to tell you that they don’t make adult thrillers often enough. I was very disappointed by the lackluster box office take of Tony Gilroy’s ” Duplicity”. But does that mean that we should give all intellectual mysteries a pass? Of course not. And while I want to love Kevin Macdonald’s “State of Play,” a few poor decisions during production keep it back from being the excellent film it could have been.

It’s even easier to see where “State of Play” went wrong than with most so-so movies because we have the original, amazing BBC mini-series for comparison. Of course, Macdonald couldn’t be expected to duplicate what was accomplished in six hours with only two, but the decisions made in the truncation were not always the smartest ones. And, perhaps, someone should have considered that the lengthy original could never have been adequately condensed into two hours.

Russell Crowe as reporter Cal McAffrey.
Photo credit: Glen Wilson and Universal Pictures

Before you say that this version should be judged on its own, I can’t rewrite history and change the fact that I’ve seen (and adored) the original. I know what “State of Play” could have been. And many of the flaws of this version are amplified by their absence in the source material. Essentially, work that was “all grays” has, often by the necessity of length, had its shading removed and become purely black and white.

One thing can be said about “State of Play” for certain - it’s not slow. Now, that doesn’t mean it’s not boring but the actual plot moves at 100 miles per hour. Don’t show up late for this one.

In the opening scenes, a junkie is shot and an innocent bystander takes another bullet when he happens to witness the first execution. Shortly thereafter, a rising Congressman’s aide, Sonia Baker (Maria Thayer) is going to work when she ends up on the track and not the platform of high-speeding public transportation.

Old-fashioned reporter Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe) gets the junkie case and rising star Della Frye (Rachel McAdams) lands the Congressman’s aide story after it’s revealed that her boss, Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck), was sleeping with his head researcher. It turns out the Collins and Baker were working together on a major hearing involving a Halliburton-esque company when they started up an affair. Could the company have been involved in her accident? Or the Congressman? What about the Congressman’s wife (Robin Wright Penn)?

Things get really complicated when it turns out that Cal’s shooting and Sonia’s accident are related. The fact that Cal is old friends with Collins both helps and hurts the investigation by both the journalists and the cops. Helen Mirren plays the editor.

Newspaper editor Cameron Lynne (Helen Mirren) questions reporter Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe).
Photo credit: Glen Wilson and Universal Pictures

There’s not a false performance in “State of Play” and anyone who likes it will do so because of the great ensemble. At first, I wasn’t sure about Crowe’s paunch (not quite as big as “Body of Lies” but not far off) and the low-key nature of his performance, but it works. He’s in nearly every scene in the movie and, as usual, he delivers. Affleck is great too, proving that the string of smart decisions he’s made lately - “Hollywoodland,” “Gone Baby Gone” - were no fluke.

Jeff Daniels and Jason Bateman are also great in small roles, and Helen Mirren could make anything interesting, even if she isn’t given nearly enough of the great material that won Bill Nighy awards for the same part in the BBC original. Only McAdams feels miscast, but almost all of her moments are exposition, pushing the speeding plot forward..

Great cast? Check. Great writers? You can’t do much better than Matthew Michael Carnahan (“The Kingdom”), Tony Gilroy (“Michael Clayton”), and Billy Ray (“Shattered Glass”). But they make some regrettable choices. The final act is a particular mess with the breakneck pace turned up to eleven. There are confessions and revelations that come so quickly that they feel like actors working towards a final scene more than anything organic. It feels rushed.

Probably because it is. And that rushing misses something about the story. The heart of the BBC original was about how the world of journalism and politics have become intertwined. The lines between the people covering politicians and the lawmakers themselves have become blurry at best. They’re too defined in the US “State of Play”. This is just another story of the white knight of journalism versus the corruption of big business. Of course, as a writer, I’m tempted to say there can’t be too many of those, but it doesn’t have the impact of something deeper.

Ultimately, “State of Play” is a well-made, well-paced thriller, but it’s ultimately merely so-so. It’s an average thriller that falls below the median when compared to the spectacular original. People who agree that there aren’t nearly enough adult thrillers will find a lot to like here but even people haven’t seen the original will sense there could have been more.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com