State of Play film review

Hardline investigative reporting meets the blogosphere in this taught political thriller which is a must see for any aspiring journalist.

Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe) is a hard-bitten journalist on the Washington Globe from the old school who has the best contacts in the business and can smell a story from a mile away. Della Frye (Rachel McAdams) is a new member of staff who writes the blog for The Globe from Capitol Hill.

The worlds of traditionalist Cal and social media savvy Della collide when they both get to grips with the biggest story in their respective careers. Old-hand Cal relies on his trusted contacts to get the evidence to stand up the story and leaps over several legal and ethical barriers on the way.

And when the story of the potential political conspiracy first breaks Della seeks Cal’s advice on the facts to give some context to her daily blog and is horrified by Cal’s maverick approach.

For Cal facts are sacred. He is the truth-seeker acting in the public interest and his initial opinion of Della – and of all bloggers – is that her copy is light on facts and heavy on gossip, innuendo and speculation.

On their way to the big scoop the pair face many dilemnas and danger, from betraying trusted friends in pursuit of the story to almost catching an assassin’s bullet.

And when they eventually expose the big story Della doesn’t run to her keyboard to instantly break it on her blog: “On a story this big,” she says. “Readers should get ink on their hands.”

State of Play is a gripping, multi-layered thriller, reminiscent – and with a couple of references to -All The Presidents Men; the Watergate Scandal which brought down President Richard Nixon. The main difference in this film is fiction.

Nevertheless, it poses many interesting questions about journalism in the modern multimedia age, such as what is it? And can a marriage between traditional, hard-nosed “real” journalism, as personified in Cal, work with new media, as in Della.

The answer is revealed at the end of the movie.

Russell Crowe and Rachel McAdams are superb in their roles. Helen Mirren is powerful as the newspaper editor. I’d recommend this film highly to all students of journalism.