State of Play DVD Review

"State of Play" reviews

DVD

State of Play

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2009-09-21 11:23:09

Rating

3/5

Provider

DVD Review

On first glance, State of Play is an old fashioned Hollywood conspiracy thriller – the ones where cool as ice lone assassins' hang in shadowy corners and journalist types sneak around empty car parks – but there is also a far larger pressing issue that the film is concerned about.

Kevin Macdonald's thriller repeatedly screams 'Print is dead' throughout the movie. At its best; it's a thoughtful observation between old school journalists and the new fangled bloggers. As Russell Crowe's old-fashioned hack puts it, when talking about his younger blog journalist partner (Rachel McAdams) - "She's hungry, she's cheap and she turns out copy every hour. I'm over prepared, I'm too expensive and I take way too long."

Other times though, the subtext is a tad trite and often you wish they would just rather concentrate on the film's thriller plot instead.

And it's a plot that will need a lot of concentration first time around. The story of two journalists investigating the murder of a senator's (Ben Affleck) young intern is a deliberately murky one – and one that refreshingly doesn't try to pander to the audience. If you want to know what's going on, you're going to have to keep up.

Despite offset dramas (Crowe and Affleck were last minute replacements after Brad Pitt and Ed Norton pulled out) the pair perform impressive turns – especially Crowe as the slightly shambolic and idealistic journalist. However, the two never really make their characters' background of old college buddies ring true.

It's certainly not a classic of the genre, but, like George Clooney's Michael Clayton, it's a welcome return to more adult-orientated Hollywood entertainment.

The DVD extras including a 'making of' are solid enough, but the real story behind the film is still waiting to be written. Which is somewhat great irony.

- Martin Howden