State of Play: DVD Review

State of Play: DVD Review

State of Play
Cast: Russell Crowe, Rachel McAdams, Ben Affleck, Helen Mirren, Jeff Daniels
Rating: M
Released by Universal Home Video
Taking the stunning BBC series of the same name, State of Play headed to the cinemas with the weight of expectation.
As far as I was concerned, John Simm's Cal McAffrey was the definitive version - and no acting by Russell Crowe could convince me otherwise.
Well, I was kind of wrong.
Crowe plays the grizzled jaded newspaper journalist who ends up investigating the death of a research assistant of friend and Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck).
But as he digs deeper, he discovers a conspiracy which has implications beyond what he imagined.
State of Play is not as good as the TV series - it was never going to be as the film's 2 hours long in comparison to the longer running time of the series which was a slow burner character piece.
However, that said this version is equally as compelling, complex, intelligent and thrilling. Crowe's part as the journalist is perfect for him - it really shows him acting his chops off - but Crowe's also smart enough to realize he's part of a great ensemble cast.
And what a cast - from Rachel McAdams' young blogger journalist to Helen Mirren's gruff newspaper editor, no one of them puts a foot wrong.
The end result is that the film is deeply compelling and immediately engrossing. The only disappointment is the relative lack of extras - deleted scenes and the making of State of Play fills out the disc- it would have been nice to have seen a bit more.
The original source material's been topically updated to include Iraq, wars between newspapers and their online departments - it's all quite a stunning mix.
It's good to see Hollywood's still keen to put out films like this - intelligent clever, gripping film-making and suspenseful.
State of Play drags you in straight away and doesn't let go until nearly two hours later.

Rating: 8/10