"The newspapers can slant this any which way they want this" - STATE OF PLAY trailer!
The whole shape of the crime thriller STATE OF PLAY changed when the FIGHT CLUB duo Edward Norton and Brad Pitt bailed out at the 11th hour just before filming was to begin and the juicy hook of a movie about two former best friends who are on the opposite ends of a hideous crime no longer had that initial spark of seeing two actors who we know have great chemistry back together on screen again. Now we have Ben Affleck and Russell Crowe, who are both damn fine actors but that Norton/Pitt duo was what sold this movie for me for such a long time. Affleck and Crowe don't quite have the same chemistry. Based on the excellent BBC T.V. mini-series from 2003, Universal Pictures adaptation of STATE OF PLAY has been co-written by two screenwriting heavyweights Matthew Michael Carnahan (THE KINGDOM, LIONS FOR LAMBS) and Tony Gilroy (MICHAEL CLAYTON, THE BOURNE series) and it follows a team of investigative reporters who work alongside a police detective to try to solve the murder of a congressmans mistress. Rachel McAdams, Jason Bateman, Helen Mirren, Robin Wright Penn, Viola Davis and Jeff Daniels make up the rest of what is an impressive cast. And if that wasn't enough, it comes directed by THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND helmer Kevin MacDonald. So the big question is, why does the movie, at best, look so mediocre? Maybe it's that odd Russell Crowe hairline? Or the lack of charisma Affleck and Crowe look to have injected in this movie.