State of Play (2009)

A team of investigative reporters work alongside a police detective to try to solve the murder of a congressman's mistress.

Director:

Kevin Macdonald

Writers:

Matthew Michael Carnahan (screenplay), Tony Gilroy (screenplay),

Stars:

Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams

2 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Russell Crowe	...	Cal McAffrey
Ben Affleck	...	Stephen Collins
Rachel McAdams	...	Della Frye
Helen Mirren	...	Cameron Lynne
Robin Wright	...	Anne Collins (as Robin Wright Penn)
Jason Bateman	...	Dominic Foy
Jeff Daniels	...	George Fergus
Michael Berresse	...	Robert Bingham
Harry Lennix	...	Detective Bell
Josh Mostel	...	Pete
Michael Weston	...	Hank
Barry Shabaka Henley	...	Gene Stavitz
Viola Davis	...	Dr. Judith Franklin
David Harbour	...	PointCorp Insider
Sarah Lord	...	Mandi

Storyline

A petty thief is gunned down in an alley and a Congressman's assistant falls in front of a subway - two seemingly unrelated deaths. But not to wisecracking, brash newspaper reporter Cal McAffrey who spies a conspiracy waiting to be uncovered. With a turbulent past connected to the Congressman and the aid of ambitious young rookie writer Della Frye, Cal begins uprooting clues that lead him to a corporate cover-up full of insiders, informants, and assassins. But as he draws closer to the truth, the relentless journalist must decide if it's worth risking his life and selling his soul to get the ultimate story.

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Plot Keywords:

congressman | newspaper | mistress | assassin | truth | 

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Taglines:

Find The Truth

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some violence, language including sexual references, and brief drug content

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [fr]

Country:

USA UK France

Language:

English Cantonese

Release Date:

17 April 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

Los secretos del poder

Filming Locations:

612 S Flower St, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

£1,513,951 (UK) (24 April 2009)

Gross:

$36,965,395 (USA) (12 June 2009)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Working Title Films, StudioCanal

Technical Specs

Runtime:

127 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

During the preproduction phase of filming, several sources reported that Haverford College, a prestigious liberal arts college in the "Main Line" area outside Philadelphia, had been approached for production design and costume items meant to imply that the two main characters, Cal McAffrey and Stephen Collins, had first met while attending Haverford. Although a plaque with the Haverford logo does appear in the background in one scene, there is no further on-screen acknowledgment of the characters' shared alma mater.

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Goofs

Midway through the movie, when a character takes the Washington Globe off of a news rack, it is a tabloid. In the final scene, it's a broadsheet.

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Quotes

Cal McAffrey: The newspaper article he types reads: Three Deaths Tied to Gulf War Army Associate New evidence links Rep. Stephen Collins with the suspect in the killings of three people, including Sonia baker, the congressman's political researcher. When confronted by the Washington Globe with information tying him to suspect Robert Bingham, Collins admitted he had directed his former Army associate to follow Baker after learning that she was secretly on the payroll of military contractor PointCorp. Collins,...

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Crazy Credits

The printing process of a newspaper is shown as the ending credits start to show up.

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Connections

Featured in The Rotten Tomatoes Show: 17 Again/State of Play/Crank High Voltage (2009)

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Soundtracks

"Shalom"
Written by Gergely Nemeth, Zsolt Prieger
Performed by Anima Sound System
Courtesy of EMI Music Publishing Hungary on behalf of Anima Sound System

User Reviews

A must-see for the American public

Character-wise, this movie doesn't have the complex figures of the best political thrillers. Dialogs are the brightest. Editing is great and the music's appropriate without being too prominent. But those are small quibbles when it comes to one of the most honest major features to come out in a long time. You'll hardly know where the facts end and where the fiction begins, because so much of it, barely obscured by a change of name, is real. As much a fiction this movie is, it may as well be a documentary.

I watched this in a mostly empty theater on a Sunday night. Americans, they told you so.