The Last Movie I Saw

Last night I went to see the political thriller State of Play directed by Kevin Macdonald, and starring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel MacAdams and Helen Mirren. It's a movie that seems to want to be about something, but ultimately falls back on the genre conventions that propel the story forward but leave the message kind of lingering in the air-- like the phantom frame of some cartoon character who has just dashed offscreen-- only to fade and disappear as the audience hustles to keep up with the twisty-turns of the plot. I think the movie wants to make a statement about the core relationship between the press and politics in a democracy, and there's definitely enough here to support that theme (especially in the broadly drawn character played by Helen Mirren, whose primary purpose seems to be to remind Russell Crowe's crusading reporter of the financial and apparently political costs his work has on his paper and its stockholders). But the convoluted nature of the main storyline of murder and corruption in high places makes it easy to see that message as little more than tacked-on context, easy to ignore as you get swept up in the assorted love triangles, psychotic veterans, and stereotypical political hypocrites. None of which is meant to suggest this is a bad film-- it's actually rather good at that thriller stuff. Crowe makes a nice, rather low key reporter, grinding out the story, playing by his own rules, which seem steeped in a journalistic tradition practically defined (at least in the public imagination) by movies like All the President's Men. The rest of the actors do a good job, and a lot of recognizable faces pop up in relatively small roles, lending it the same kind of familiarity I always associate with the movies of the thirties, well-populated by great character actors (I can't remember the last time I saw Josh Mostel in a film, for example). So even if this misses an opportunity to be something truly deep and meaningful, it's an entertaining way to while away a couple of hours.