A classic cat and mouse reporter story with a twist, State of Play received much positive buzz around its theatrical release. Russell Crowe showcases his acting chops again as a stereotypical personally-sloppy-but-professionally-brilliant investigativereporter, assisted by the naive yet determined political gossip blogger played by Rachel McAdams. Ben Affleck’s senator character is both central and uninteresting, but is supported by the always-understated-and-great Robin Wright. The highlight of the cast is Jason Bateman in a small and late but critical–and humorous–role that really makes him a shining star in the film.
Another standout of the film is its ending. The editing is interesting and clever, delaying the resolution of the film in a suspense-filled way. Director Kevin Macdonald’s treatment of a fairly straightforward, but timely script is detail-oriented and competent.
Special features for the Blu-ray left much to be desired. The only two features on the disc were predictably “Making of” and “Deleted Scenes.” Surprisingly, there were only two deleted scenes, one of which was clearly deleted for good reason. I was really hoping for a “gag reel” of sorts with such a phenomenal cast in such serious roles. I especially was hoping for a few “Harry” moments from a “Dumb and Dumber” era Jeff Daniels.
The “Making of” was surprisingly engaging, especially since the film wasn’t difficult to craft from a technical standpoint. The talk points from the documentary added very valuable insight into the film, especially knowledge about the subtleties in directing and cinematography. Director Kevin Macdonald’s documentary background became even more evident in the “Making of” when he reveals the complexity and authenticity that went into crafting every detail of the entire Washington Post newsroom.
The documentary weighs in at nearly a whopping nineteen minutes, and felt about ten minutes too long, yet did have very interesting information riddled inside, and had extraordinarily high production value. Thankfully, it left out the stereotypical actor/director ass-kissing prevalent in nearly every such documentary.