State of Play

As a throwback to good old fashioned newspaper reporting (i.e., not the current online craze known as blogging), this film pays respect to investigative reporting and the diminishing importance of newspapers, which is becoming a dying artifact of the 21st century as news gets disseminated much faster through TV and the internet, but such speed and efficiencies come with its own set of perils, improper vetting and fact-check.

"State of Play" has a good solid cast, though most of the characterization is invested in Russell Crowe's character, Cal, who is an old school investigative newspaper reporter. Cal's friendship with Congressman Steve Collins (Ben Affleck) is tested when Sonia, a young female researcher on Collins' staff, dies under mysterious circumstances at a subway station, and then it's revealed that Collins was having an affair with the staffer, which threatens to undermine Collins' efforts to go after 3rd party militia-related contractor that profits from war and terror.

Obviously, Cal follows leads, and also has to contend with a staff blogger, Della (Rachel McAdams), in his investigation of Sonia's mysterious death since it involves Congressman Collins and Della dishes the dirt on the Hill on her blog. Through their unlikely pairing, Della comes to understand true gritworthy journalism, while living through some harrowing moments during her somewhat naive investigative efforts. The other strong pairing is Cal and Cameron (Helen Mirren), who is Cal's editor-in-chief for the newspaper, and Cameron just wants to stay viable by getting the scoop out in print, but Cal is always trying to get the story right, and struggles with keeping Cameron's deadlines at bay as the investigation takes quite a few twists and turns on the way to uncover the truth.

The film is a throw-back to potboiler journalistic thrillers of the 1970s, but through the prism of today's decline in newspaper circulation and readership. It's about fighting the good fight to stay relevant in spite of today's technological landscape in information transference to the general population. Be sure to stay through the credits.

I give it 3 stars, or a grade of B.