State of Play | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: When you finish this Wyatt review, please spend a few moments using our Movie Database, and feel welcome to return. Nearly everything important to movies, plus great images are there.

   Publisher's note: As redundant as a pacing lost soul, I am loathe to admit, Wyatt is probably our most read writer - not our best, mind you, just our most read. Many months ago, March 12, 2012, I was perusing our sister publication, Better Angels Now, and I noticed that so many of Wyatt's reviews, of the many fine films that occupy the public's interest, have not been availed to our readers through our Beaufort County Now publication.

    Consequently, over the next many weeks, possibly months, we will endeavor to remedy this mild injustice by publishing these reviews, in our current improved format, for your edification. Here below is our twenty-fifth in a series of these older articles of interest by our good friend, Wyatt Sanderman Day.

    
The Deception of the Desperate in the Halls of Congress Fall to the Whims of Intrigue

    "State of Play," possibly, should have been titled State of Prey, considering the maneuvers of the players, who run our congress and deceive the public nearly as much as they deceive each other. Watching Congressman Rep. Stephen Collins, played by Ben Affleck, being put through the paces of the relative intrigue associated with a representative in the U.S. House, who happened to chair the Committee on Defense Appropriations was a gut wrenching observation of the necessity of legislative appropriations and the obvious flaws of the players within the congress.

    The terribly flawed congressional members that were used as foils - a backdrop or canvas to paint this morality play - were just one of the many parallels to today's society that gave this film the edginess of real life. Another similarity to the profound reality of this real world is the portrayal of journalism: its gritty machinations that produce the finished product, which generates its profound effect on governing, and, ultimately, how each party plays the other accordingly to elicit a more desirable outcome. The third resemblance to present day situations is the reality of the Department of Defense's escalating practice of contracting with mercenaries (defense contractors) to relieve the pressure on an inordinately extended military.
Congressman Rep. Stephen Collins, played byBen Affleck, is a man on the move and a man with a motive: Above.
    First correlation: the proud and the profane in congress - specifically the U.S. House of Representatives. Congress has the lowest approval ratings of my lifetime - somewhere in the very low teens - and is it any wonder? If you want a major buzz kill - watch them in committee meetings. Some of their members' questions are so inane. Is it any wonder that they can be played so easily by the smarter members? Congressman Rep. Stephen Collins is not stupid, but he is being played by Rep. George Fergus, portrayed to perfection by Jeff Daniels, who is becoming one of the best character actors in cinema. No, Representative Stephen Collins is not stupid, but he makes bad decisions, not least of which is his having an affair with staff member Sonia Baker, played by Maria Thayer, whom we never get to meet except in pictures or impersonal moving images. When she dies in a suspicious suicide, the game is afoot, and fodder for Washington Globe Journalist Cal McAffrey.
Congressman Collins, Affleck (left), and Cal McAffrey, played by Russell Crowe,were college roommates, but remarkably dissimilar in almost every way: Above. Washington Globe Journalist Cal McAffrey, Russell Crowe (right), sorts through the facts to find the truth, with Washington Globe Editor Cameron Lynne, played by Helen Mirren (left) looking over his shoulder: Below.
    Cal McAffrey, portrayed by the very capable Russell Crowe, smells a story here when he connects the dots between his former college roommate, Stephen Collins, and the dead congressional staffer, who was researching the provincial players seeking funding for defense appropriations. Reporter Cal: has access to his former roommate, he has knowledge of ancillary commandos - that he supposes to be connected to mega defense contractor Point Corp - running loose over the Washington, DC landscape killing people. He also has an incomparable tenacity in probing for information, and has recruited a capable assistant, Globe Blogging Editor Della Frye, played by Rachel McAdams, to help tie together the loose ends.
Della Frye, played by Rachel McAdams (left), is the learning half of the same team that includes Cal McAffrey, Russell Crowe (Right), her very reluctant partner: Above. Cameron Lynne, Helen Mirren (left) attempts to mediate a positive outcome: Below.
    Washington Globe Editor Cameron Lynne, played with total cynicism by veteran Helen Mirren, wants a proper story, but she wants an efficient one along with the economic necessity of selling papers. This parallels today's business society where competition from the internet for the dissemination of information is forcing newspapers to be more efficient or close their doors. What the "free press" is discovering is that the press is not so free, and we are witness to the machinations of developing a good, ethical article, while under the pressure to produce a competitive product. The free market can be a bitch, and this representation of the new age of the "free press" shows that she ain't no lady. She is the brassy Madam Lynne being forced, by "mean spirited" capitalists, to sweat the fat lady down to a manageable institution, which will continue to exist if it can stay real.
Jason Bateman, as Dominic Foy, may be even more flawed than the reprehensible congressmen: Above. Congressman Collins, Affleck (left), with his long suffering wife, Anne Collins, played by Robin Wright (center), listening to bits of truth, as he knows it, from Cal McAffrey, Russell Crowe (Right): Below.