State of Play (2009)

When a congressional aide is killed, a Washington, D.C. journalist starts investigating the case involving the Representative, his old college friend.

Director:

Kevin Macdonald

Writers:

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

Stars:

Russell Crowe, Rachel McAdams, Ben Affleck

2 wins & 4 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 Representative's assistant falls in front of a subway, two seemingly unrelated deaths. But not to wisecracking, brash newspaper reporter Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe), who spies a conspiracy waiting to be uncovered. With a turbulent past connected to the Representative and the aid of ambitious young rookie writer Della Frye (Rachel McAdams), 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:

conspiracy | congressman | newspaper | political conspiracy | print journalism | 

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Taglines:

Find The Truth

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

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

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the scenes where Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe) goes to the hospital towards the end of the movie, the building that is used as the hospital is actually the headquarters for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

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Goofs

While difficult to measure accurately, the film takes place over too short a period of time, for the action involved. From the dates on the newspapers, the timeframe appears to be 3 or 4 days maximum. Yet the evolving nature of the story, the amount of time required to track down leads, etc., probably would require much more time.

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Quotes

Della Frye: [referring to Foy] And why do you think he's gonna talk?
Hank: Because he's scared.
Della Frye: How do you know?
Cal McAffrey: Because I'm gonna scare him.

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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 Charlie Brooker's Wipe: Episode #5.3 (2008)

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Soundtracks

Born to Be Alive
Written by Patrick Hernandez
Performed by The Flugel Horns

User Reviews

Enjoyable thriller with a glaring miscasting

Good thriller with some excellent performances. Russell Crowe is suitably grizzled as the been around reporter and Helen Mirren is wonderfully tough as his editor, the problem is the casting of Ben Affleck. He gives a good enough performance but is far too young to be believable as Crowe's college roommate or Robin Wright Penn's husband, not his fault but a major casting error nonetheless. Originally Crowe and Affleck's parts were to be filled by Brad Pitt and Edward Norton a far more simpatico pairing the obvious disparity in the leads ages distracts throughout the film. Jason Bateman shows up late in the movie to offer up a fun, out there performance as a sleaze. The story itself does move along and offers some nice tension and twists.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [France]

Country:

USA UK France

Language:

English Cantonese

Release Date:

17 April 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

State of Play

Filming Locations:

612 S Flower Street, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$14,071,280, 19 April 2009

Gross USA:

$37,017,955

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$87,812,371

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