State of Play

The decline of newspapers is an indelible fact of modern American culture. The internet and cable news has essentially forced out the erstwhile ink-stained wretch desperately pecking away at his typewriter trying to make the first edition. You know, someone should make a movie about this. Russell Crowe, you say? Sign me up!

State of Play had the opportunity to be something special. With a great cast at its disposal, it could have been the anti-All the President’s Men, depicting the fall of American newspaper journalism. What we got instead was a relatively interesting political thriller with tantalizing bits of prescience tucked in. The story involves the death of a Congressman’s (Ben Affleck’s) aide and the conspiracy surrounding it. Crowe plays Affleck’s friend and “Washington Globe” reporter assigned to the story. Along with hot blogger Rachel McAdams, the intrepid duo try to hunt down the truth…before it’s too late.

It’s pretty ho hum stuff, but some of it has style and the acting is great. The only problem is, I still don’t know what the hell happened. The ending made no sense, and there was a bunch of plot that didn’t really seem to go anywhere or matter. The film also tugged at intriguing threads, especially concerning the importance of selling papers. Helen Mirren, who plays the news editor, continually screams at Crowe for his unwillingness to run with sensational and titillating stories in favor of “real” news. Which, of course, is what newspaper journalism has essentially become. In its losing war against real time cable news and blogging, newspapers are attempting to become the very things that are making them irrelevant.

This, I think, could make a great movie, and would not be unlike Season 5 of The Wire. Unfortunately, State of Play was content to be a decent political thriller. And, in this era of Hollywood taking the easy way out, that should be news to no one.