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:

Who's telling the Lies?

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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

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 St, 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

Did You Know?

Trivia

After Brad Pitt departed from this movie,, and before Russell Crowe replaced him, other actors considered for the role of Cal McAffrey were Johnny Depp, Nicolas Cage, and Tom Hanks.

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Goofs

McAffrey's car is shown to have a CB and at least one other radio, yet there are no antennas on his car.

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Quotes

Cal McAffrey: Mornin'...
Cameron Lynne: So? Where are we, was he nobbing her or not?
Cal McAffrey: Morning, Cam...
Cameron Lynne: That's funny about you. Every time your friend runs for re-election or conducts a hearing, you drop his name to me until we give him some coverage... but he finally does something that actually might sell some newspapers, you render mute. It's, it's - incongruous!
Cal McAffrey: No, it's not... it's inconsistent.
Cameron Lynne: Pfff, don't be an ass. What do you think? Those are the ideas for our facelift. I know, I know... it's crap! Our new owners ...
[...]

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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 Hollywood's Top Ten: Russell Crowe Movies (2010)

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Soundtracks

Peter and the Wolf
Written by Sergei Prokofiev (as Serge Prokofieff)
Performed by The Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony (as The Czechoslovak Radio Symphony Orchestra)
Conducted by Ondrej Lenard
Courtesy of Boosey & Hawkes on behalf of Naxos Rights International Ltd

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.