State Of Play review

Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck hopped aboard this project after Brad Pitt and Edward Norton dropped out citing 'script concerns' and it's easy to see why. State Of Play just doesn't work that well, it's an average by the numbers thriller with a heavy-handed message about the demise of traditional journalism. Adapted from the critically lauded BBC1 mini-series of the same name, what it tries to keep in scope it loses in depth.

Unlike the original, this time the film is set in Washington D.C where respected politician Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck playing it by the numbers) is leading a corruption case against a private international security firm while a spate of seemingly unrelated deaths starts to get uncomfortably close to home.

Russell Crowe appears miscast as Cal McCaffrey, a world-weary journalist whose approach to investigative journalism has earned him the respect of his peers throughout the years. Believing that a story is something to be chased and nurtured rather than cut and pasted off the internet, he plays the role like a wise old sage. He is similar to an extra from Howard Hawks' brilliant His Girl Friday but with more paunch and without the zing.

Although the closest role that Crowe's McCaffrey could be compared to is Jeffery Wigand from Michael Mann's critically-lauded The Insider, whilst he appeared to completely inhabit Jeffery and sympathetically played him as a flawed human with a seemingly impossible task, here Crowe just comes across as smug, he never feels comfortable or confident in commanding the title role.

The supporting cast however are terrific. Helen Mirren is fantastic as a no-nonsense editor; Jason Bateman is deliciously seedy as an upper-class pimp and Jeff Bridges plays a revered politician who's not afraid to bear his teeth when provoked. Each enter onto the screen with so much force that the film slumps whenever they're not around.

Kevin MacDonald's direction feels limp in a script that - due to the writers strike - didn't have time to go through a requested re-write. With the amount of talent attached to this film and the quality of the source material, it's a shame that it has turned out so distinctly mediocre. On screen it lacks substance, bite and feels withdrawn.

Visually the film looks great, cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto muting the look of a film with off-kilter greys and blues and lacing the film with fine camera work, but as it stands, it's an average film with a remarkable amount of talent behind it that has not reached anywhere near its expected potential.

Jonny Dawson