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State of Play Movie Review Summary

Actors: Russell Crowe, Rachel McAdams, Ben Affleck, Helen Mirren

Detailed plot synopsis reviews of State of Play


A journalist investigates the suicide of a congressman's mistress, believing it to actually have been a murder. Cal McAffrey is an old-school journalist in DC who gets a visit from his old friend, Congressman Stephen Collins, with some information about the suicide of a young woman, Sonia, on his staff. He reveals that he's torn up about it, because he was having an affair with her, and suspects foul play, as she'd messaged him that morning perfectly happy. When Cal does some research and finds out that she was killed in one of the very few blind spots of the closed circuit TV in the DC Metro stations, he realizes that Collins may be right. A homeless woman comes into the newspaper office with some photographs she'd collected from a murder the night before, from a thief who'd stolen a briefcase and was killed by the briefcase's owner. The homeless woman found photos from the briefcase-- photos of Sonia meeting with a mysterious man in a suit. Another victim of the shooting of the thief, a pizza delivery guy who was a witness to the thief's death, gets shot by a faraway sniper as he lays comatose in his hospital bed. Everything seems to tie together, and Cal suspects some grand scheme is at the heart of it. When Cal finds out that Collins has been doing a great deal of investigative work against a huge private security corporation called PointCorp, Cal begins to believe PointCorp is responsible for these murders. He interrogates a PointCorp executive and learns that Sonia was actually a spy for PointCorp who'd been paid handsomely to seduce Collins, but she was killed when she truly began to love Collins. Cal goes to press with his story, and Collins goes to testify against PointCorp, and all seems well-- but when someone close to Cal slips up and reveals too much, Cal fears that the conspiracy hits him closer to home than he could have imagined.
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Best part of story, including ending: This is an exciting political thriller, filled to the brim with great actors and an immaculately eerie production design that fills each frame with paranoia.

Best scene in story: The interrogation of the PointCorp executive, played by Jason Bateman, injects some much-needed humor into an otherwise cut-and-dry thriller.

Opinion about the main character: Cal is old-school, and he's partnered with a young blogger, so the audience is persuaded to side with the anti-technology stance and the strong ethics of the elder journalist.

The review of this Movie prepared by R.W. Hainline a Level 29 Superb Fruit-Dove scholar

Script Analysis of State of Play

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Plot & Themes

Composition of Book Actual chase scenes or violence 20%Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives 40%Feelings, relationships, character bio/development 40% Time/Era of Movie:    -   present 2000+ Spying & Terrorists    -   Yes The terrorist enemy is...    -   businessmen (the #1 enemy in Hollywood films)

Main Character

Identity:    -   Male Profession/status:    -   journalist Age:    -   40's-50's Ethnicity/Nationality    -   White (American)

Setting

City?    -   Yes City:    -   Washington D.C.

Writing Style

Accounts of torture and death?    -   moderately messy visuals of dead Sex/nudity in movie?    -   Yes What kind of sex:    -   vague references only Kind of violence:    -   guns Unusual forms of death    -   run over Any profanity?    -   Some foul language Is this movie based on a    -   TV show

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