State of Play
2009
***
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Cast: Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren, Jason Bateman, Michael Berresse, Robin Wright Penn, Jeff Daniels
Two men are shot in a back alley, and the next morning a woman falls under a Metro train. A weathered journalist for the fictional Washington Globe puts two and two together and links the deaths to a private defense contractor who is under investigation by the Congress. Like Woodward and Bernstein in All the President's Men, he and his colleagues know they're onto a big story, even if this one is not based on fact. This political thriller is suspenseful and entertaining, but the conclusion of the elaborate conspiracy is very predictable, not to mention anticlimactic. The cast is impressive, although Crowe and Affleck are hardly believable as college buddies. Based on a British miniseries written by Paul Abbott.
