State of Play (2009)

Things are not exactly as they seem in this thrilling tale of a reporter torn between a political friendship, and his job, uncovering "the truth."

Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) directs this compelling drama about veteran newspaper writer Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe, Body of Lies, American Gangster) who just happens to be friends with a young hot shot politician named Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck, He's Just Not That Into You, Paycheck) who happens to br heading up a committee concerning the issue of privatized government security contracts. When an aid of his, who he's also having an affair with, ends up dead, he ends up in hot water and the only person he can turn to is his old friend Cal. Along with his blogging news sidekick Della (Rachel McAdams, The Notebook, Red Eye), he begins an investigation that will take him elbow deep into a cover up he never sees coming.

Easily in the top five movies I regrettably did not see in theaters this year. All you crime, mystery, thriller drama fans will love this. Really great, twisted story that really makes you wonder if things like this go down in real life. So much so, that I found it humorous that one of the cast members even says of the idea of a government cover-up like this as something you'd only see in a movie. The acting was really good, completely engrossing... even the supporters (Helen Mirren, Robin Wright Penn, Jason Bateman and Jeff Daniels) were on key. The only really "bad" thing I could say about the movie is that it was quite long, over two hours. But the movie is good, so you don't take notice.

7.6/10

Rated: PG-13
127 mins