April 18, 2009

The Problem With "State of Play"

It should have been great, but it left me totally cold. I don't know if the biggest problem was the shaking camera work, the intrusive, BUMP-BUMP-BUMP musical score, or the ludicrous, one-twist-too-many ending. Also, Ben Affleck- who I normally defend- was just brutal, in probably his worst performance since Bay's "Pearl Harbor." There's also the journalistic stuff, as pointed out by Patrick Goldstein:

The problem is pretty obvious -- the film's screenwriters, all clearly gifted at dialogue and storytelling, have taken a story that is really a cop movie and grafted it into the world of journalism. Crowe actually interrogates one suspect -- whoops, I mean source -- in a motel room, with a backup crew of cops -- whoops, I mean reporters -- stashed in an adjoining motel room, secretly videotaping the encounter, which he then shows to another source/suspect in the story. This is, ahem, wrong on a thousand different ethical levels, not to mention, in an era of vastly diminished newspaper resources, who could afford to pay for all the video gear, much less two motel rooms?

Crowe has a basic conflict of interest that would disqualify any reporter from covering this story; he's an old friend (and former college roommate) of the powerful congressman who's at the heart of a murder mystery. Even worse, from a believability angle, Crowe's top editor (nicely played as a tough-talking Fleet Street expatriate by Helen Mirren) knows all about their friendship, which in real journalistic life, would have disqualified Crowe from covering the story from the jump-off, especially since he has an even more complicated entanglement with the congressman's wife.

There's a host of other farfetched moments, including a scene where Mirren refuses to print an explosive story, saying that the paper's new owners are insisting that Crowe get at least one key source on the record. A reputable newspaper would indeed demand that at least one source be on the record before printing a big story, but that demand would come from the editors, not from the owners of the paper, who usually find out about a big story at the same time the readers do -- after it's printed.

Not to mention, as David Poland pointed out, Affleck is supposedly the college roommate of Russell Crowe's character, and married to Robin Wright Penn, with whom they both went to college. Except Affleck is eight years younger than Crowe and six years younger than Wright Penn. I think Ben was in middle school when Robin was starring in "The Princess Bride." Another critic, I forget which, said no Congressional wife would ever have an affair with a mere Washington reporter.

Posted by Stephen Silver at April 18, 2009 12:38 PM
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