Getting the Story: "State of Play"

As the cursor crosses the the old computer's screen in a cluttered cubicle at the Washington Globe, all eyes are on investigative reporter Cal McAffrey at the keyboard.

McAffrey (Russell Crowe), and his colleague, Della Frye (Rachel McAdams) have pulled together the facts, connected the dots, and written the stories. A purse snatcher laying dead in the morgue had unknowingly grabbed much more than cash and credit cards when he pinched the attache case of McAffrey's fellow Pennsylvanian and friend, Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck).

McAffrey's boss, Cameron Lynne (Helen Mirren) pooh-poohs his theory initially, heaping scorn upon him and demanding coverage that is more instant, more attention grabbing, and yes, more superficial. Earlier, she'd given him and Della eight hours to tie it all together, then held off the Globe's press run for four hours more.

Racing the clock to prove that a sinister conspiracy is behind four murders, McAffrey and Della have scrambled to get sources to go on record . . . before they're killed. Throughout the spellbinding "State of Play", a shadowy assassin stalks witnesses and others to enforce secrecy.

The secrecy surrounds contracts with the Defense Department that are worth billions. Collins leads the congressional committee investigating the private security firm that has its CEO rolling in the dough.

Della's gossippy angle initially leaves it up to McAffrey to begin tying the seemingly disparate events together to unravel a web of power, money and murder. Della stays on the story, objecting as McAffrey crosses the ethics line again and again. Despite personality contrasts (as with Woodward and Bernstein's merged efforts to become “Woodstein” in breaking the Watergate story of the early seventies), together they build the investigative reports.

One reviewer compares "State of Play" to the intensity of a Bourne movie and I agree. The tensions are laid to rest as the newspaper's last story of the night goes to the page, the pages goes to press, the papers go to the trucks.

Journalism as it once was, as the closing song runs. The page negatives are shot, the plates are burned, the web-fed presses roll, the collator orders the pages. In the darkened theater, I remember that exhaustion of the wee hours (in a much, much smaller market).

“Put a candle in the window” say the closing song's lyrics - a 1970 rock/blues number “Long As I Can See The Light.”

Light. With radio rants from the right and left consuming our attention, we have a lot of heat. But does this journalism reveal dark secrets hidden behind the doors of power. Is there light? Meanwhile, major cuts are made to newsrooms. An earlier refrain of "profit" has been replaced. Now it is "survive".

With artforms sometimes telling a story more effectively than do business reports and balance sheets, floundering major newspapers should give away (they're already giving away their content, why not give more?) tickets to see State of Play.

We need to be reminded in yet another way, that journalism has historically contributed to democracy and is expected to continue doing so.

Plugged In Online reviews it here.

Jamall Finkley of Blacktree TV interviews Russell Crowe about journalism then and now (*includes one British expression some may find objectionable.)