State of Play

Director Kevin Macdonald’s “State of Play” is an above-average political thriller that features solid but unspectacular performances and an engaging plot that manages to hold our attention for two hours. It is better than mediocre but far from brilliant—and for this we may be thankful. After what feels like an endless procession of movies aimed at either a small critical circle or a mass market, “State of Play” accomplishes what few recent films have been able to do: balance the commercial appeal of its stars with an intelligent plot and worthy characters.

At the center of the movie is Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe), a seasoned reporter for The Washington Globe who begins to unravel a government conspiracy while investigating the death of a research assistant to Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck)—coincidentally Cal’s friend and college roommate. Accompanied by Della Frye (Rachel McAdams), a young but eager political blogger for The Globe, Cal discovers that at the center of the plot is PointCorp, a private company bidding for Defense Department contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan that Collins is investigating.

Based on a BBC television miniseries, the film follows the basic conventions of a political thriller. Macdonald includes the obligatory love triangle as well as the requisite parking garage chase scene that we’ve seen so many times before. The movie bears a passing resemblance to other classic political thrillers such as “The Manchurian Candidate” and “The Pelican Brief,” but it still achieves a number of effective plot twists.

“State of Play” does make a slight attempt to situate itself in the current political climate. Characters throw phrases around such as “privatization of homeland security,” but these references are liminal at best. The possibility of making a political statement exists but is ultimately fruitless. Rather, the real commentary in “State of Play” is about the deteriorating state of print media. “The real story is the sinking of this bloody newspaper!” Globe editor Cameron Lynne (Helen Mirren) yells at her reporters in one scene. The paper is failing, and Cameron is caught in the conflict between traditional journalism and new technology—a conflict embodied in Della, a blogger, and Cal, an established field reporter.

While it bemoans the current crisis in print media, the movie also hearkens back to a not-so-distant past when investigative journalism had the power to change politics. It is a view that is at once sentimental, nostalgic, and not entirely unproblematic. However, it really doesn’t matter much in the context of the movie as a whole. “State of Play” seems much more concerned with keeping us intrigued than playing out a debate about new journalism.

That said, Crowe leads an impressive ensemble cast including Mirren, Affleck, McAdams, Robin Wright Penn, Jeff Daniels, and Jason Bateman. Crowe has starred in a number of thrillers, such as “Proof of Life,” “The Insider,” and last year’s “Body of Lies,” and he has become adept at playing the troubled but sympathetic antihero. Although his craggy face and shaggy hair lend his character the right air of schlubbyness, Crowe is charismatic enough to keep our attention.

Mirren is feisty as Cal and Della’s boss, but her character lacks substance. As is often the case in an ensemble cast, many of the supporting actors are underutilized. Della, for instance, is not so much Cal’s partner as his sidekick, entering and exiting the film as it suits the plot. Their dialogue is often amusing, but Cal and Della lack chemistry. McAdams is almost too pretty to play Della, but she manages to hold her own against Mirren and Crowe. Bateman enters the picture late, but his performance as a slimy PR spin doctor is surprisingly sympathetic. His brief appearance constitutes the best scenes in the movie.

“State of Play” doesn’t add much to the genre of the political thriller, but it delivers entertainment that at least makes the audience think and question. It falls somewhere between the insipidness of a “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” and the painful seriousness of a “Revolutionary Road.” “State of Play” is simply smart entertainment, which seems to have become something of a rarity in Hollywood.

—Staff writer Claire J. Saffitz can be reached at csaffitz@fas.harvard.edu.