State of Play
- Title: State of Play
- IMDb: link
State of Play is an ambitious project which, at times, gets away from director Kevin Macdonald. The script was worked on by the men who gave us Michael Clayton, Lions for Lambs, and Flightplan. And, for better or worse, you can see each writer’s stamp on the film, meaning at times it becomes both too preachy and too focused on “getting us” with unexpected twists. To be fair, many aspects of the film work well and it’s an enjoyable, and even somewhat smart, thriller which has something to say about the state of both journalism and politics.
Cal McAffey (Russell Crowe) is a reporter’s reporter, that dying breed your more likely to find in a movie like this than an actual newspaper office, at least these days. He’s a throwback, the last of the old guard focused on finding the truth of a story and bringing it into light. His stark worldview is encroached on by a sassy young blogger (Rachel McAdams) who can put out several tasty tidbits a day, an editor (Helen Mirren) pressured to make the paper more commercially viable, and a breaking scandal involving the death of an assistant to a golden boy politician (Ben Affleck) who just happens to be Cal’s former college roommate.
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Finally some truth in advertising. From the title alone you should know whether 
I don’t remember exactly when the term bromance was introduced into the lexicon but it seems were stuck with it, at least for the foreseeable future. From the writer/director of Along Came Polly and the writer of Doctor Doolitle 2 comes this tale of a man on the eve of his wedding who realizes he doesn’t have any male friends. Thus hilarity (or Hollywood’s approximation of the concept) ensues. As set-ups go it’s pretty bland (and seems to be cribbing a tad too much from The 40 Year Old Virgin), but I’ll admit I Love You, Man was better than I expected.
I’m a self-admitted and unabashed fan of