In cinemas May 28 [PG]

Director: Kevin McDonald

Runtime: 127 minutes

Directed by Kevin MacDonald (The Last King of Scotland) and written by Tony Gilroy (Duplicity), State Of Play is essentially an Americanised, filmic adaptation of the highly acclaimed BBC mini-series of the same name. It’s a timely and tortuous little tale of political conspiracy, cover-up, and murder, with an all-star cast. In theory, it has everything going for it. In practice, it plays out like a 2 hour cliché with an inevitable twist at the end, which, while not necessarily easy to pick in itself, is numbingly predictable just by being there.

Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe) is a dishevelled reporter for the Washington Globe – he’s an arrogant pig but gee, does he know how to sniff out a good story. When a young, female member of Congressman Stephen Collins’ (Ben Affleck) staff is killed in a subway ‘accident,’ McAffrey begins to sense ‘there’s more to the story,’ despite the cynicism and discouragement of his editor, Cameron Lynne (Helen Mirrin, being, well, Helen Mirrin). Resident blogger Della Frye (Rachel McAdams), although initially resented by McAffrey (she’s young and wide-eyed, you see), eventually proves instrumental in assisting him to ‘break the story.’ There are all sorts of allusions to – and numerous direct references to – Watergate. I don’t think I really need to go on.

The most frustrating aspect of this movie is that, from the very beginning, we know that the young, attractive female research assistant working for Congressman Collins in his crusade against the military industrial complex didn’t really ‘fall’ in front of the subway – but it takes McAffrey and the others a bloody long time to catch up with us. Despite being shot in a grainy, often hand-held style, the pace just doesn’t feel as urgent as it’s obviously supposed to.

As is often the case in these kinds of productions, the moments of real joy come from the superb performances of the supporting cast – in this case, Jason Bateman (playing Dominic Foy, an dishonest and decadent drug-addicted PR guy caught up in the middle), and Jeff Daniels (Congressman George Fergus, a powerful and shady colleague of Collins’). What these two deliver goes above and beyond the call of duty, while Big Russ just rolls on through. I don’t care if he’s won an Oscar or not – Russell Crowe is crap at American accents. And Ben Affleck is powerfully wooden – again. Yes, Rachel McAdams is very cute. Um, look, I think there is actually a decent story underneath all of this – probably best just to watch the BBC series, if you haven’t already.

**½

ADAM DODD