‘State of Play’ is a taught political thriller about decoding the truth in a world where very few people seem to tell it or at least all of it. Russell Crowe stars as Cal McAffrey an old fashioned nothing-but-the-facts newspaper man who seems to have particular distaste for online journalism like Della Frye’s (Rachel McAdams) blog.

Cal is investigating a shooting in which one man was killed and the other is still in a coma. When Cal’s good friend and former roommate Senator Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) comes to him after the apparent suicide of one of Collin’s researchers Sonia Baker (Maria Thayer), who was also having an affair with Collins, Cal tries to help his friend by building a case for something other then suicide like accidental death.

At the newspaper Della and Cal are made partners for a new story on the death of Sonia. Della finds out that in the Metro station Sonia died in one of only one of three security camera blind spots.

Senator Collins happens to be building a case against Point Core a very shady private security contractor that happens to have a $40 billion contract with the US government. Sonia was the lead researcher on the case and Collins believes they killed her for it.

‘State of Play’ is a great political thriller with just the right pacing that keeps twisting and turning until the very last scene.

Without spoiling too much I will say that I found the final climax to be a bit disappointing and anti-climatic. You’ll understand when you see it. It’s interesting and I’m not saying it’s bad, but it fundamentally changes several elements of the film. Personally I was expecting the roller coaster to turn one way and it went the other.

Despite my slight distaste for the ending, this is good filmmaking there is no denying that.

‘State of Play’ directed by Kevin Macdonald (’Touching the Void’ and ‘The Last King of Scotland’), also stars Helen Mirren, Robin Wright Penn, Jeff Daniels and Jason Bateman. This gives ‘State of Play’ one of the best and most talented casts in recent years.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars