State of Play, Bottle Shock, New in Town

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There´s a fascinating story about the death of print journalism inside Kevin Macdonald´s State of Play; too bad it´s wrapped inside a rather routine political thriller. Not that the thriller is bad (though it is a bit muddled) but it hits the usual notes, and detracts from the real compelling stuff here: the inner-workings of a big city newspaper in this age of bloggers. State of Play opens with a double-shooting: a junkie shot execution-style, a passing pizza delivery man in a coma, Washington Globe reporter Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe) investigating. Meanwhile, Sonia Baker apparently commits suicide by jumping in front of a train; she was chief researcher for Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) in his big case against big war-profiteering corporation PointCorp. She was also his mistress. McAffrey has an inside track on the Baker story: he´s Collins´ old college roommate (now, Crowe is eight years older than Affleck and looks 15, but this is the least of the film´s implausibilities). Globe blogger Della Frye (Rachel McAdams) attempts to use that connection, but McAffrey shoots her down. When Collins shows up at McAffrey´s apartment and reveals that Baker´s death could not have been a suicide, McAffrey begins to investigate, and finds some connections with his double shooting to boot. Frye, in typical blogger style (or at least, print journalism´s view of blogger style) runs her take on Collins without much regard for fact-checking. McAffrey has little choice but to team up with her on a multi-layered investigation of Baker, Collins, and PointCorp, under the visage of editor Cameron Lynne (Helen Mirren). There are, as expected, compelling twists and turns along the way, and it´s all engrossing till the final twist, which invokes that age-old cliché of the true villain revealing himself in a minor dialogue slip-up (“wait a minute, how did you know about such-and-such?”). The stars are perfectly serviceable, with Crowe especially fun as the scruffy reporter, but Mirren´s editor, mourning the death of journalistic standards, provides the film´s backbone. And Jason Bateman absolutely steals the film in a key third-act performance that infuses State of Play with some much needed comedy, and surprisingly, heart. There are two really interesting themes here, the first being the slow death of print journalism in the internet age, the second being the ethics of the business of war, with PointCorp making a bundle off providing mercenary services not just abroad, but at home too (“we were the first in New Orleans after Katrina”). The film is too plot-heavy to do either real justice, but I appreciated a final, elegiac printing press montage. State of Play, like Soderbergh´s Traffic, was originally a well-regarded British miniseries. Six parts, an hour each, roughly 3 times the material. But you´d never guess that from this movie, which feels tight and well-paced, bolstered by (outside of Affleck´s senator) well-developed characters. Macdonald (Touching the Void, The Last King of Scotland) is a talented filmmaker and he´s pieced the film together well, though I can only guess what has been lost in the transition.

All is well and good until the second act and most of the third: Spurrier and wines are all but forgotten as the film focuses on relationships at the vineyard: bull-headed Jim and drifting son Bo, who are actually put in the boxing ring in a number of scenes that reek of screenwriter´s contrivance; and fledgling romances between Bo and Sam, and Gustavo and Sam, and the friendship between Bo and Gustavo. These (presumably) real-life characters have been so overwritten they come off as fictional clichés.

If you ever wanted to see the folksy residents of the Coen Bros.´ Fargo in a formula romantic comedy, here´s your chance: Jonas Elmer´s New in Town transports a Miami city girl to Minnesota, and leaves no Harve Gunderson or “don´tcha know” unturned. The formula works, I suppose, which is why we see so many of these films. But if you don´t find much wrong with New in Town, you´re not looking hard enough: this is a creative void that represents a lot of what is wrong in contemporary cinema.

Renée Zellweger stars as Lucy Hill, high-powered executive for a big food corporation who accidentally accepts a tour of duty in New Ulm, Minnesota, to oversee the downsizing of the town´s big factory. There she meets characters named Blanche Gunderson (Siobhan Fallon) and Tracy Van Uuden (Frances Conroy), factory foreman Stu Kopenhafer (J.K. Simmons) and head of the labor union Ted Mitchell (Harry Connick, Jr.). Queue endless jokes about how cold it is in Minnesota, and how dern funny them people talk. You betcha.

This is a very specific story that has come to bat a number of times before: your usual ‘fish out of water´ comedy mixed with the plot of said fish shutting down the native´s big factory. This plot needs to have a certain ending to work, yet the Hollywood formula keeps carrying it in the opposite direction; therefore it´s almost never worked, the lone possible exception being Tennessee Williams´ This Property is Condemned and Sydney Pollack´s campy film version starring Robert Redford and Natalie Wood.