State of Play

[Dragonfire]

I saw this one a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it.  It is a very well done thriller.

A young man is shot in a dark alley after trying to steal a purse.  A reporter for the Washington Globe, Cal, starts working on the story the next day.  That same morning, a young woman, Sonia, died in a bizarre accident.  Questions about if the death was an accident or suicide are raised.  Things are complicated by the fact that Sonia had been working for congressman Stephen Collins.  Stephen is scheduled to start a hearing looking into a private security firm when he hears the news.  He is visibly upset when he mentions the death and reports surface that he had been having an affair with her.  Stephen isn't sure how to deal with everything and goes to see his old friend Cal, who is also friends with Stephen's wife Anna.  Cal decides to start checking into what was going on and he uncovers things that make him think more is going on.  His editor Cameron is after him to produce a story that will sell papers - the new owners of the paper are after her for the same thing.  Cal ends up working with Della, a young woman working in the internet division, writing some sort of blog for the paper.  They discover more that convinces Cal that there is a conspiracy.

The movie is based on a six part British television drama that aired in 2003.  I haven't seen the original version, so I don't know exactly what was changed for this version.  I'm sure things were condensed since this version is only about 2 hours long. 

I thought the plot for the movie was very interesting and entertaining.  I was never bored by what was going on and I didn't think the movie was predictable overall.  There were a few minor things that were predictable.  There is a decent amount of suspense and mystery in the movie.  Things are resolved by the end of the movie for the most part, though I did wonder about one or two minor things.  I liked how the movie took time to show Cal at work, and showed the contrast between his type of reporter and the newer blog reporters who the new management seemed to favor since they had all the new computers while the print reporters were working on ancient computers.  Even though sex is involved through the relationship that Sonia and Stephen had, there aren't any sex scenes in the movie.  The characters are intertesting, though Della is a bit annoying at first.  The cast is great.

Overall, this is a really good movie that deserves to be seen.

 

I did post a review on Epinions if anyone is interested.

State of Play