"State of Play" is a good thriller, if you can get past the cartoon stereotypes a la Hollywood tradition.MSM reporters are noble, truth-seeking heroes who refuse to move forward with any story until every fact and circumstance is nailed correctly and firmly to the ground...Oh, pu-leez. Don't even start me.
Politicians are uniformly evil; this shtick is a bit more credible. But of course, the writers have to assign a completely gratuitous remark to the darkest villain, the senator at the head of a threatening military plot, that reveals him as--gasp!--"religious." Yes, yes, we get it--liberal press, good, politicians of faith supporting military, bad.
On the subject of the military, of course we have PointCorp, the obvious Blackwater parallel, which is a gargantuan complex of money-grubbing evil-doers, ready to take over America--by shooting American citizens--at a moment's notice. None of Pointcorp's contractors are murdered, mutilated, burned, and hung from enemy bridges in this film. No, no, the PointCorp guys are all busy getting wealthy, subverting liberty and sticking it to the aforementioned noble reporters.
Naturally, the psychotic killer in the plot is a military veteran--how else could he qualify for a Hollywood script? Trashing the military gets old really quickly for me, as it should for every American who has the neurons to understand that our military is the only reason we can enjoy a Saturday afternoon at the movies in peace and safety. I realize that there is the occasional kook in uniform; must he be cast in every movie? Now what about all the 100% outstanding troops who put it their butts on the line for us every day? When will they get their fair shake on the other side of a box office ticket? Rhetorical questions, but worth asking anyway.
Seeing this film was not my choice; it was my movie buddy's turn to pick the show. And as stated up front, it is a suspenseful thriller that turns in complicated directions quickly and smoothly, with first-rate acting from a stellar cast. Helen Mirren is electrifyingly sharp as the cantankerous editor under pressure from the newspaper's new owners, Russell Crowe is always worth watching, and Ben Affleck took me completely by surprise--he actually managed to act.
But I can not give it a "go see" rating. "State of Play" never quite rises above the tired caricatures it recreates. Been there, done that, too many times before. Pass the popcorn, and remind me again--when does the new "Star Trek" movie start?
