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State of Play
Directed by Kevin Macdonald, Universal Studios*
Adapted from a 2003 BBC miniseries, State of Play transports the British tale of political intrigue and conflicted alliances Stateside with this thriller from director Kevin Macdonald. Macdonald made a splash in Hollywood with his 2006 hit The Last King of Scotland, which marked him as a man who knew his way around the fact-based political thriller genre. The result for the director this time is an engaging DC-set Hollywood mystery that perhaps unsurprisingly features the homeland security industry in a less than positive light.
The film follows Russell Crowe (no stranger to the genre himself) as Cal McAffery, a seasoned reporter for the film's Washington Post stand-in, The Globe. When the lead researcher (and mistress) to his former-college-roommate-turned-crusading-Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) meets a suspicious death in front of a subway train, Cal uncovers a disconcerting connection between the murder and the Congressional hearings Collins is spearheading. A private defense contractor staffed by ex-military personnel and under investigation for its involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, the villainous PointCorp acts as a rather obvious stand-in for Blackwater and its operations both overseas and at home.
As bodies begin to pile up in DC, sinister motives are floated connecting the death of the Congressman's mistress and PointCorp. The early hearings play out with predictable refrains--charges of employing mercenaries and allegations of atrocities are aired--but the plot really thickens when a company insider reveals to McAffery that Collins is threatening a loss of $30-40 billion annually for the company, what he refers to as wrath of God money. What PointCorp earns abroad pales in comparison to what it stands to make in domestic operations--what the insider calls the privatization of homeland security. Referencing the company's involvement in crowd control after Katrina (derisively referred to as private security contractors deputized to shoot at American citizens ), the insider reveals that PointCorp is poised to take over from the NSA on phone taps, terrorist databases, all of it, what exactly this entails is never fully explained and is merely left as an ominous fill-in-the-blank.
But just in case all of this wasn't explicit enough, the former military man ends by asking Cal the most damning question of all: does he really think PointCorp is willing to forfeit all of this just because some hero from the 7th District of Pennsylvania thinks they should? After all, thanks to the Muslim Terror Gold Rush, they have $40 billion good reasons to want Collins out of the way--by any means necessary, of course.
From a script by Tony Gilroy (best known for Michael Clayton and the Bourne films) and Matthew Michael Carnahan (less known for the politically-themed flops Lions for Lambs and The Kingdom), State of Play quite clearly plays off public fears of both the government in general (with its cadre of morally-questionable Congressmen) and the homeland security industry. And by doing so, it offers an insight into Hollywood's views--and by extension, the general movie-going public--of the private defense industry as a shadowy lobbying interest that's loyal to nothing but their bottom line. And even though a late twist lends State of Play a bit more depth, it's not exactly a nuanced portrayal.
In the end however, all the political maneuvering acts as little more than a backdrop for State of Play's murder mystery, and Macdonald appears far more interested in the state of the nation's newspaper industry than its homeland security. Helped greatly by a superlative cast (save Affleck), Macdonald keeps the pace moving fast enough to make State of Play an engrossing thriller, at least initially, but its myriad plot twists struggle to hold up after any serious reflection.
The HSO Takeaway: Despite being slightly more nuanced than the traditional Hollywood political thriller, State of Play still prefers to simply demonize homeland security's public and private players rather than give them the same well-rounded treatment it affords its newspapermen. And while the inclusion of several familiar references and reference points lends the film some political currency, it ultimately remains little more than a straightforward thriller, marred slightly by plot holes but elevated by its cast.
*State of Play can be found on DVD and Blu-ray for $20 and $30, respectively.
Rick Mele is a movie reviewer who has covered film festivals and all things film-related for a variety of online publications. He is also the creator and editor of the short-form review website Films in 6 Words. www.filmsin6words.com
State of Play
Directed by Kevin Macdonald, Universal Studios*
Reviewed by Rick Mele
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