Wednesday, April 29, 2009

State of Play

I've been really disappointed with the quality of the twists in films of late. Most of them are really really obvious beforehand. But I don't think Russell Crowe has made a bad film for a long time, and this is no exception. I'll try not to spoil it in what follows.

In some ways, this is a standard journalist thinks they are a detective film, investigating a Washington political scandal which involves several deaths. Big companies being evil, courageous politicians trying to take a stand, the usual sorts of thing.

I suppose the biggest weakness is that the film is probably slightly more sympathetic to the journalists than it should be. As the police point out during the film, there is a sense in which their desire for the scoop does make the situation work...

Oh, that and the presence of the annoying guy from the Orange phone cinema adverts in a minor role. He was really, really distracting, not because he was a bad actor, but just because, sitting in the cinema, I was expecting him to say something really stupid...

1 comment:

Otepoti said...

Perhaps you've just got better at predicting twists and picking up clues.

Soon, you'll be able to tell how every detective story will end.

Then policemen will start looking young.

Cheers.