Went to see State of Play on Friday night.It was a very fun movie-going experience -- the movie is filled with cliches (of all kinds -- dialogue, visuals, plot turns, etc.), but I loved the escapism of a good political thriller and the overlay examination of tensions between old and new media.
Russell Crowe, Rachel McAdams and Helen Mirren (as the reporters) and Ben Affleck (as the politician) all did well at the Hollywood-star thing, and Jason Bateman -- in his role as a hyped-up PR-fixer -- was hilarious. I could have done without the sublot about the affair between Crowe and Affleck's wife, but otherwise I enjoyed his character's trying to balance his personal and career (1) relationships, (2) goals and (3) commitments.
The best part of the movie was that it actually did have some good things to say about the decline of traditional media -- in particular, the need to put actual time and thought into developing stories and analyses, rather than just banging everything out on the spur of the moment.
