State of Play

Ben Affleck, Russel Crowe, Helen Mirren and Rachel McAdams so we're thinking that it can't be that bad. Yes, it has Ben Affleck starring in it but with the others being as good as they are the chances of this film being good and Affleck's normal poor performance being overshadowed.

Reporters in a death that causes a scandal. An action film with a completely different angle. Crowe is a reporter, McAdams a blogger who is relatively new to the firm, the head of the magazine and of course, Affleck takes the role of a company executive who was having a secret relationship with the deceased and is a friend of the main reporter (Crowe). The idea is, play detective before the detectives fail to work out the case because in the interest of the story there has to be a story before the detectives figure it all out and claim all the credit.

Affleck has one fantastic point in the film but he once again sticks to his slightly pained and mostly emotionless face for the entire film. This guy just can't show anything other than a small amount of pain and it is really irritating. At times you don't want the calm and composed guy as it isn't natural, we can't always be calm and composed. What he lacks everyone else in the cast has so it's okay. Scenes for Affleck are limited and that makes the film much better.

What this film captures is the moral conflicts and dilemmas that we all thought reporters didn't have or know what they even were. It's refreshing to see a reporter with a conscience, a reporter who understands about friendship and in Crowe's character we have that. On the other hand we see the typical reporter that we all think of in McAdams, someone who is thinking about what should go on the front page- the first thought is 'well if we don't do it then someone else will so we should just do it'. Yes, there are people like that but there are people who can do the job of reporting but not think only about their pay grade and the story. This film captures everything about being a reporter. It's a great film in it's own way but I don't really know what category it falls in to.