""State of Play"" is a terrible movie with an amazingly astute marketing strategy. By shamelessly pandering to media luddites with nostalgia-inducing montages of a reporter's life, it softened the hearts of some of the most jaded film critics (it made A.O. Scott cry, for God's sake). Although the movie itself fails to intelligently show the lack of objectivity in reporting today, perhaps the critical response it has received does exactly that.
The movie takes place in an overcast Washington D.C. after the murder of Sonia Baker (Maria Thayer), aide and mistress of Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck), a scenario depicted with heavy-handed similarities to the death of Chandra Levy. The plot follows reporter Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe doing his best Mel Gibson impression) as he tries to unravel the murder case and find the truth. Conveniently, Collins and McAffrey were roommates in college, and soon Collins begs the reporter—apparently the congressman's only political resource—to help him turn the tide of the media onslaught in his favor.
Based on a 2003 British TV series, the movie features a star-studded mishmash of characters such as Helen Mirren as the caricatured newspaper editor, Rachel McAdams as the feisty, often braless Capitol Hill blogger and Jeff Daniels as the unscrupulous minority whip.
Crowe and McAdams must team up to investigate the story, but must first reconcile their different positions on what angle to take. Though the intent here is to juxtapose the traditional hard-nosed reporter with media rookies, Crowe's acting is akin to ""The Big Lebowski"" played by Air Bud, with McAdams as one of his lost puppies.
And much like Beethoven (the Saint Bernard in the critically acclaimed 1992 film ""Beethoven""), director Kevin Macdonald bit off much more than he could chew when filming the movie. By trying to weave together such expansive topics as corrupt senators, shadowy government organizations and the role of journalists in modern society, the end result looks more like a finger painting than a tapestry critiquing political interplay.
One saving grace of the movie is a cameo by Jason Bateman as the slick, pill-popping PR rep Dominic Foy. Another is the horribly photoshopped image of Affleck from his character's military tour in Kuwait. And has it been mentioned that Rachel McAdams doesn't wear a bra in some scenes?
Unfortunately, there is no sexy male equivalent in the cast. Though Brad Pitt and Edward Norton were originally slated to be in the movie, they both presciently dropped out.
The movie ends with a twist so incomprehensible it would make M. Night Shyamalan blush. It might even make him throw up a little, but in a way that would actually surprise you instead of just making you want to punch your brain out.
Although it's nice to think newspaper production is fueled solely by whiskey sipped from Dixie cups, the movie fails to address the less glamorous aspects of a reporter's life, such as filing FOIA requests, sitting through five-hour budget meetings and diving into doubloon-filled swimming pools like so many Uncle Scrooges on corporate retreat weekends. With the omission of these topics covered in any Reporting 101 class, the movie loses all credibility.
For a more accurate depiction of the world of investigative journalism, I highly recommend ""Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley: The Case of the Sea World Adventure.""
Grade: D+
