State of Play

State of Play

17/4/2009 2h 7m 6.8/10

Overview

When a congressional aide is killed, a Washington, D.C. journalist starts investigating the case involving the Representative, his old college friend.

Director

Doug Coleman

Top Billed Cast

Helen Mirren

Helen Mirren

Cameron Lynne

Ben Affleck

Ben Affleck

Stephen Collins

Jason Bateman

Jason Bateman

Dominic Foy

Rachel McAdams

Rachel McAdams

Della Frye

Russell Crowe

Russell Crowe

Cal McAffrey

Robin Wright

Robin Wright

Anne Collins

Reviews

Peter McGinn

Peter McGinn

7/25/2021

6/10

This movie follows a familiar subset of the thriller genre, that of the journalist investigating a story and discovering there is more involved than what meets the eye, and before he knows it there is evidence of a conspiracy stretching high into government. How high? Well, that of course varies from one conspiracy movie to the next. I couldn’t help but notice that one of the methods of death early on here was later borrowed by the series House of Cards (U.S. version). But there are only so many ways of making possible murders look like accidents or suicides, so perhaps it was coincidental. The acting and the writing were fine, however familiar the story seemed. It just felt like it wouldn’t have taken much originality to alter the plot to separate it from all the other journalistic investigations of government corruption.

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