State of Play (2009)

State of Play is a movie based on a British television drama serial, broadcasted on BBC One in 2003. It captures a balanced combination of crime, drama and thriller ingredients. The story begins with an intense chase, where a young criminal runs for his life late in the evening, eventually finding a hiding place from a dark alley, but unfortunately meets his final destiny and gets shot by a mysterious briefcase man, along with a witness, who just happened to be at a wrong place at a wrong time.

The next day an investigative newspaper reporter Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe) from Washington Globe comes to the crime scene and is curious to know what has happened. He is a well-known reporter among all the cops and detectives and is always there where something's going on.

Later that morning there is a news flash on television about yet another death, this time the victim is a young woman called Sonia Baker (Maria Thayer), who also happens to be Congressman Stephen Collins' (Ben Affleck) assistant and even more, as speculated, his secret lover. Cal happens to see the news and seems to be in awe with all this. And there is also a good reason for his reaction. Stephen Collins happens to be his former college roommate and a close friend of his, but Cal didn't have any idea of his secret affair with this young woman. He now finds himself in a challenging position trying to solve the case and on the other hand trying to help his friend.

He starts to investigate these two crimes with a young reporter, Della Frye (Rachel McAdams), even though at first he is not that interested to work with a young college grad who is still a bit green and concentrates mainly on her political blog in the newspaper. They end up doing the story together after all and as they get deeper to the story, they find out that there is much more going on than just these random deaths. All the incidents are linked together and they soon discover that Congressman Collins is also much deeper into all this than they first thought.

State of Play is well implemented movie, the storyline is strong and keeps you alert till the very end. The cast is phenomenal, Russell Crowe once again showing the audience what an incredibly talented actor he is. Watching his acting as Cal, this old-style reporter was such a strong performance and he was so comfortable with this character it felt like he truly has been a reporter in his former life. His brown corduroy jacket, the long, curly hair and rough, unshaved beard were like the finishing touches to his spectacular role.

Ben Affleck as the congressman Collins was also solid and believable, as well as Rachel McAdams in the role of Della Frye. McAdams added some fresh female energy to this film, along with Helen Mirren in a role of Editor-in-Chief Cameron Lynne. Together these two ladies made a nice balance with the strong smell of testosterone in this reporter-detective story.

Probably one of the strongest movies of its kind this year making you want to see more films like this. Enjoyable movie, with not so much action or violence, but with more investigative and crime-solving perspective.

Directed by Kevin Macdonald

Written by Matthew Michael Carnahan, Tony Gilroy & Billy Ray (screenplay), Paul Abbott (television series)

Cast Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren, Robin Wright Penn, Jason Bateman, Viola Davis, Maria Thayer

IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473705/