State of Play

Politics is a dirty game. Journalists are buggers. Classic journalism is almost a thing of the past. Tony Gilroy is a good writer. Kevin Macdonald has a nose for interesting, current material. Russell Crowe has charisma even with his dad-bod belly. Helen Mirren can take over even when given a minimum of space. Jeff Daniels has his best years behind him. Rachel McAdams is completely uninteresting. Simply old, familiar truths that are also completely true here. The only truth that doesn't apply here is the one about remakes being redundant, because this one is anything but redundant or bad. It does not tarnish the good name of the British original, rather the opposite. (05/29/2009)

A solid political thriller with great actors, good direction, but a problematic script that results in several characters and scenes feeling empty, and a resolution that is too concise, to the point that after one viewing I’m not entirely sure that everything fits properly. That wouldn’t be a problem in a sci-fi mystery movie, but in a political thriller, which should rely primarily on the plot turning flawlessly and the effect of the final twist, this is a pretty serious shortcoming. 6+/10 (05/28/2009)

Take out Affleck's dull, inarticulate expression and Helen Mirren's superfluous character of a principled journalist, and you are left with the best you could wish for in a conspiracy political thriller: a great plot, a dense atmosphere sculpted by tons of political dirt and forbidden machinations, a terrific score, and four or five excellent actors who we trust to live and breathe their characters. But be warned, it's still nothing but highly stylized and cleverly twisted Hollywood entertainment with an intrepid Crowe and an attractive McAdams, where the spectacular pursuit of justice far outweighs the honest themes of classic conspiracy films. But you have to get used to it, because you can't do better than this in the genre today – and personally I’m not complaining. 80% (05/10/2014)

Very nice directing and good actors, but the script hardly traverses the three levels of the story: thriller, political-journalistic moralizing and personal drama. The introduction is excellent, full of the unique and very rhythmic direction by Macdonald, but then everything somehow shatters, shreds, evaporates... the legible transnational conspiracy tries to compare with the more serious mental matrix, but it is tedious and quite protracted. The final twists may come as a surprise, but they do not fix the shoddy impression from the previous storytelling. In the end, State of Play is neither an original thriller nor a film that would appeal to us with any message. It has a little bit of both and not enough of either. Nevertheless, mainly thanks to the directing and the actors, it holds up more than honorably. [70%] (05/18/2009)

Journalism with not a drop, but rather a hefty bucket of everything I dislike about current Hollywood production. Reporters who get in everywhere, incompetent cops, a stupid shootout during which a complete amateur escapes a professional, a soulless script culminating in a very expected ending, pervasive naivety... There’s nothing enthralling or at least entertaining and truth be told, an hour and a quarter into the film I was ready to turn it off. Misery, misery, misery. (06/01/2013)