Ok, I take it back. That trailer which I really didn’t like was clearly the result of the powers that be thinking that people would only go and see a political thriller if it had guns and actionythrills, and is not actually a reflection of the film at all. The film being, actually, genuinely really good.
It’s a bit like ‘variations on a theme of state of play’ – I think that’s the best way to explain it. You have this original story that’s really frakking great, and it’s made into an awesome TV series. But what’s being re-made isn’t the TV series, per se, but the story, which is still a frakking great story. I mean, you’d go see several productions of, say, Twelfth Night over the course of your life, if you liked Shakespeare, because they’re all different but equally valid. If it’s a bad production you’re pissed off and regret it, but if it’s good you enjoy it and you get something out of it. State of Play: Teh Film is like a good new production, which takes a slightly different slant on the original story than the TV series did.
The basic plot is the same, although I did for most of the film think they were going to leave out the grand finale – so kudos on them for not bottling it – but details are different, which knocks on into the film feeling different from the series, and yet recognisable. So, f’r'instance, the inquiry Collins is involved in is about defence contracts, not environmentalism and big oil – times have changed, and the film chooses to take a new element in the ‘world going to hell in a handbasket’ theme. It works. Also, the casting makes the dynamics different. Russell Crowe is older and less boyish than John Simm as Cal, but also than Ben Affleck, as Stephen Collins. So the relationship between Cal and Collins is different. There’s less sense of Collins as having been a mentor to Cal, but more the other way around, and so the sense of betrayal at the end is different. There’s also a different Cal-Della dynamic, less equal, more tense, but with Della learning from Cal – it works, and it also lets the film ask questions about the ethics of journalism, whilst simultaneously slimming down the role of the editor from the TV series in order to get the running time down to film-lengths.
So, all in all, State of Play the film is a different beast to the TV series, yet recognisably the same, and it’s equally good, but in a different medium. And I like that I’m going to get to have both. An incidentally, it’s probably Ben Affleck’s best ever part.
