DATE REVIEWED: 7/1/24
TITLE: State of Play (based on the BBC TV series of the same name)
BOX OFFICE RATED: PG-13 (This is not suitable for GOD’s children.)
PRODUCTION YEAR: 2009 Universal Pictures / Working Title Films / Studiocanal / Relativity Media / Andell Entertainment / Bevan-Fellner Production
RATING [1 LEAST FAVORITE TO 5 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED]: 1
REASON: This movie takes place in Washington, D.C., and began with teenager Deshaun Stagg running for his life from a dangerous man with a stolen briefcase. The killer man shot Deshaun dead and also shot Vernon Sando, a pizza delivery guy who witnessed the scene. Cal McCaffrey was a reporter for the Washington Globe and showed up at the crime scene. Detective Donald Bell filled reporter Cal in on the information because the two were friendly, which ultimately led to other people dying because the press played detective and withheld evidence from the police after getting information from the rogue officer (It is not freedom of the press when the press gets more people killed and steals evidence from a murder investigation to make a profit and twist the truth misleading the USA people). Vernon was an MBA graduate from Duke, and was in the process of buying a pizza franchise and had to work the route before the deal could go through. Vernon barely survived the shooting and was in a coma at the hospital in the ICU and had police protection assigned to his room. The detective said Deshaun was thought to be doing a drug deal when he died. Meanwhile, Congressman Stephen Collins was being groomed to be the next elected Democratic President. Stephen received news that Sonia Baker, his head research assistant assigned to the PointCorp case, died in a subway train accident after she was pushed. Stephen went to the hearing as scheduled but tearfully explained the sad news about his staffer to the committee and then walked out. Stephen’s reaction at the hearing had everyone wondering about an intimate relationship between him and Sonia and it caused a great scandal since the congressman was married. Even the Globe news employees at their huge office bet that Stephen was having sex with Sonia. Della Frye, a younger female news employee, wrote the online Capitol Hill blog for the Globe. Della introduced herself to seasoned employee Cal and she asked Cal for dirt about Stephen since they Cal and Stephen knew each other in college. The scandal between Stephen and Sonia was already all over multiple news outlets and it was suggested that Sonia committed suicide. PointCorp was the biggest beneficiary of the military’s outsourcing in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Stephen was speaking out again them in his hearings. Stephen admitted to Congressman George Fergus and Andrew Pell that he had an affair with Sonia, and they took him off the PointCorp hearing and advised him not to draw attention to himself. The two democrats told Stephen that they take care of their party members and told Stephen he will get through the scandal. Stephen’s wife, Anne, would not take his calls or speak to him. Cameron Lynne, the British female editor of the Washington Globe, wanted Cal to give her dirt on Stephen. As it turned out, Stephen showed up at Cal’s apartment to get away from the reporters camped outside Stephen’s house. Cal planned to help his college buddy and write an article to divert the blame from Stephen and blame Sonia’s death on unsafe transit conditions. Cal then told Stephen to call Sonia’s parents because he didn’t want it in the news that the congressman was too shallow of a person that he didn’t offer his sympathy to Sonia’s relatives over the loss of his assistant, Sonia. Stephen told Cal that he was happiest when he was with Sonia, and not his wife. Stephen then proved that Sonia didn’t kill herself because she sent him a lovey video message that morning and she was looking forward to their upcoming plans together. Della published an online Globe article trashing Stephen, and then Reporter Cal gave Della the contact name of Lieutenant Leon Comey so he could show Della the security footage from the train station to determine the people around Sonia at the time of death and whether she was pushed or jumped in front of the approaching train. Della got a police escort from Stuart Brown to Comey’s office, but she couldn’t find out anything because the killer planned the murder to happen in one of the train station camera’s blind spots. Anne called Cal, and he knew nothing about Stephen’s affair and agreed to meet with Anne. Reporter Cal was friendly with the female at the hospital (obviously did this to get the scoop many times before) and went through the evidence items belonging to Deshaun, even though he wasn’t supposed to. Cal wore gloves and copied down the numbers from Deshaun’s phone. Outside in the hallway, Mandi Brokaw, a 16-year-old junkie thief living on the streets (with Deshaun) sat in a chair by the vending machine. She asked Cal to buy her a soda at the hospital and he did. In his Saab car on the road, Cal called the numbers and tried to impersonate Deshaun in a homie voice, but one man knew it wasn’t him and hung up on Cal. One of the numbers from Deshaun’s call list happened to belong to Sonia’s cell phone, so Cal asked Della for information on Sonia but she wouldn’t give him any and was worried that Cal was trying to ruin Sonia’s reputation. Mandi then ended up stealing Cal’s bag when he was getting a meal at a fast food joint, but Cal found her across the street and Mandi agreed to give him his bag back once he gave her $500 (that was how Deshaun and her made money…stealing things of value to others and selling them back to people). Later on, wifey Anne showed up at a press conference to salvage Stephen’s political career and made a dignified statement to save his reputation. Mandi brought Cal to her underground hideout home and explained that Deshaun had stolen a metal briefcase from a man outside Starbucks and then planned to sell it back to the man so Deshaun could get money for illegal drugs and shoot up again. The contents of that briefcase included a gun with strange smaller than normal bullets and different pictures of Sonia with men. Mandi had kept the photos from the briefcase and then Deshaun met up with the owner of the briefcase to sell it back to him (minus the photos). Mandi then showed the photos to Cal. Mandi said she tried to tell Deshaun not to sell the briefcase back because the man was different and scarier than their other victims, but he did it anyway because he was desperate to get drugs. Mandi had used Deshaun’s phone to call Sonia and warn her about the psycho man so she wouldn’t get hurt, but Sonia didn’t answer the call. Cal didn’t go to the police with the evidence but instead called congressman and college buddy Stephen to give him an update on what happened and ask him who would want Sonia dead. Cal later explained the case details to boss Cameron, Della and the staff. Everything led back to PointCorp, which was founded by ex-military. The bullets were military-grade and were specially made to shoot and kill theirs targets, and the shooter knew exactly where to aim at both Deshaun and Vernon. The Washington reporters withheld the evidence from the police because they wanted to make money off it. Della thought the police should know about the evidence and the reporting company was obstructing justice by remaining silent, but the other reporters, including the editor, planned to hold onto the information and use it to their advantage to get the story first. Cameron wanted to replace rookie Della with senior employee Ted Moody, but Cal stood up for Della so Cameron swore the f-word at Cal and agreed to keep Della on the investigative case. Officer Brown was supposed to be watching Vernon in the ICU, but he got distracted with a call on his cell phone. Cal talked to Detective Joe Bynes and got permission for Della to talk to Vernon when he woke up. Della bumped into Robert Bingham in the elevator leaving the hospital as she arrived, who was there to finish off the job and kill Vernon. Robert did just that by shooting Vernon dead through the glass room window, and officer Brown pulled reporter Della down to safety inside the victim’s hospital room, but he got shot in the left arm. Cal went to see Anne, and the two of them were close because they had an affair.That didn’t last long because Cal rushed off to the hospital when he got the shooting news, and crying reporter Della was upset and told reporter Cal that the Globe could have stopped the deaths if they had given the police the photographs so they could possibly get fingerprints off the photos and find the murderer. The Globe held a meeting with Donald and the other police detectives and gave them some information. Donald told the snake pit of reporters that they already had blood on their hands for interfering with the murder investigation instead of handing over the evidence. Editor Cameron wanted a quid pro quo for whatever the police uncovered in the investigation so the Globe could report it, but the police refused and left with the murder evidence. Cameron wanted to do better than the cops so she assigned Della to find out more about Sonia while Hank, Pete and Cal investigated PointCorp (again…the new reporters were interfering in a police investigation and what they did was not considered freedom of the press but unlawful and endangering the lives of innocent citizens). PointCorp had bought 60,000 acres in North Carolina and called it little Baghdad, and they had offices at the Watergate building. Della and Cal toured the empty Medal of Freedom Initiative (MOFI) offices. Stephen went back to his hearings and questioned PointCorp on their profits going up $250 million since the war and how the military paid to train the men and then PointCorp got rich from killing them overseas (PointCorp had 100% Vets as employees). Della asked around about Sonia, and someone claimed that she used to walk around in her bra and underwear before she got into politics. Dominic Foy was in the pictures with Sonia, and he led Della to Sonia’s former roommate Rhonda Silver. Della got her information by agreeing to a date with a sweaty guy, and then she reviewed the Metro Station footage. She recognized a man there as Robert, the assassin she bumped into at the hospital by the elevator. Della printed out suspect murderer Robert’s photo to show her reporter coworkers and boss (and not the police). Cal then met with a PointCorp insider (he got the name from his many reporter sources) outside Captain White and Jessie Taylor’s Seafood and gave him a picture of Robert. The PointCorp insider explained that it was the Muslim terror gold rush. The PointCorp soldiers answered to no one but each other and were loyal only to their paychecks, and they were in it for billions of dollars in (USA) domestic money that they got from privatizing Homeland Security. PointCorp were there for hurricanes and were private security contractors authorized to go after Americans and shoot them. PointCorp trained the Chicago police and planned to take over the phone tapes and terrorist databases from NSA. Congressman Stephen then explained to his reporter buddy Cal that the government outsourced bids for Homeland Security and granted 16 companies the bids, 14 of those individual companies Stephen believed were all owned by one single company. Cal warned Stephen to be careful while Cal searched for the evidence to get Stephen on the record and expose PointCorp’s illegal dealings. Della went to talk to Rhonda, who told her that she and Sonia had a threesome with Stephen and he gave Sonia many thousands of dollars to pay off her credit card debt. Cal didn’t want Della to compromise his story by putting that little tidbit about the sex scandal and credit card payoffs out in the press. Anne went to see Cal and told him that she wanted to walk away with her marriage so she could be with Cal, but he told her that it was too late for them to be together (Cal was romantically interested in younger Della). Cal questioned Anne if Stephen could spend over $25,000 without her knowing, and she explained that he couldn’t because the political husband and wife family without children could just barely afford their multiple houses in different states. The PointCorp insider gave reporter Cal the information he needed to locate Robert through Fred Summers in Crystal City. Cal went to Fred’s apartment, where Fred’s roommate Robert said that Fred was overseas. Cal called for police backup and made a run for it, and he hid in the parking garage as Robert followed him with a gun. A group of people entered the parking garage and left in their car, but Cal grabbed onto the side of the car as Robert shot at him. The car crashed into the police car that arrived, and the bad guy ran and Cal injured his hand. Donald later told Cal and Della that Fred died and the neighbors told him that Fred’s nephew was staying with him, but Fred didn’t have a nephew. Donald also revealed that Mandi was likely murdered that night because of the tips she gave Cal. Mandi’s fingerprints were found on the Sonia photos that the Washington reporters held from the police. Cameron was irate about not being on the front page of the news with the Congressman Stephen threesome sex story, and Cal explained that it was a made-up way to sabotage Stephen’s career and hide what was going on with PointCorp. The Washington Globe were now owned by MediaCorp, who wanted sales so editor Cameron announced that Cal and Della had eight hours to finish their story without getting all the facts. Reporters Hank and Pete, Globe employees, found information on Sonia’s friend Dominic, who owned a PR business and liked to party and dress up at freak nightclubs. Dominic’s office was located in the same Watergate suite as the MOFI. The reporters decided they would take the law into their own hands and illegally scare Dominic into a confession on tape by threatening to release his name in the news with a picture of him dressed questionably. Dominic agreed to talk, and Cal took Dominic to a dingy Americana motel with the cameras recording. Dominic popped pills, smoked cigarettes and drank beer, and Cal told Dominic that his compensation would be protection and not having his name published if he gave the Washington reporters what they wanted. Dominic explained that he recommended Sonia to work for PointCorp, and she was able to pay off her credit card debt without Stephen’s help because she was paid $26,000 a month. Sonia was instructed to spy on Congressman Stephen and report back to PointCorp, and spy Sonia decided on her own to have sex with Congressman Stephen. Cal called Stephen and learned that Congressman George Fergus was the one who recommended Sonia to Stephen. Cal told Stephen to come to the motel immediately, and reporter Della was upset that reporter Cal was breaking all the laws and trying to do police work.After Cal left the shabby room, drugged up Dominic admitted to Della that he was bisexual. Cal later on admitted that he was Stephen’s friend and he once had a thing for Anne. Stephen listened to the video interview with Dominic and learned that Sonia was pregnant with Congressman Stephen’s child, but she never told Stephen. Stephen went next door and attacked Dominic, and Cal and the others separated them. Stephen knew about Cal having an affair with Anne, and then Stephen stormed off and Della overheard. Cal went to interrogate Congressman George and interrupted him at a formal gathering. George claimed that he recommended Sonia because she was the daughter of George’s family friend. However, George didn’t even know that Sonia’s mom’s name was Janine so George knew the was caught in a lie and then he threatened to have reporter Cal fired. MediaCorp didn’t want the newspaper to print anything unless they got a confession from one of the big key political people. Cal believed that MediaCorp, PointCorp and George were in on it together. Stephen and Anne then appeared at the Washington Globe offices, and Stephen gave his confession on tape. Congressman Stephen explained on tape that PointCorp wanted to take over the country and they would readily pick off any citizens who stood in their way and have them as collateral damage. The two college buds never told Anne about Sonia’s pregnancy or how much Stephen and Sonia loved each other and instead led Anne to believe that it was all a political ploy to get to Stephen and Sonia was being paid to have sex with and spy on her husband. Cal and Della went separately to their assigned desks to write up their one report, and then they drank hard alcohol inside the work place to celebrate when they were finished. Cal then realized that Anne knew how much Sonia was getting paid even though nobody ever told Anne about it so something was very wrong. Cal found a picture of Stephen, Robert and other men with a black panther symbol which matched the symbol on the shirt that Robert wore in the parking garage. Cal told Della to tell Cameron to hold the story printing while Cal went to Stephen’s office and questioned him who Robert was. Stephen explained that he saved 17-year-old soldier Robert’s life in Kuwait, but then Robert was discharged from the Army because he was mentally unstable. Stephen got suspicious of Sonia and hired Robert to stalk her and find out what she was hiding from Stephen. Cal figured out that Stephen had unstable Robert in his pocket to kill Sonia off since Stephen knew Robert would do anything for him since he saved his life overseas, and Cal in his other pocket to cover it all up in the news, and four people died because of the politicians scheming ways. Cal had already called the police to arrest Stephen, and Cal left. Military dressed Robert, who was armed with a gun and had come to finish things, confronted Cal outside. Robert shot at Cal to kill him but he ducked, and the police had arrived and shot Robert dead first. Della and Cameron were there for moral support as Cal typed up the story of Stephen’s arrest and used his name and Della’s. Della was given the honor of hitting the send button for the final article to go to press, and then she walked out of the Washington Globe with Cal. The story was printed on the front page of the newspaper. This movie had a budget of $60 million and grossed over $88 million at the box office. The movie cover art listed, The Times “Four stars.” Peter Travers, Rolling Stone, “A gripping thriller…” Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times “A smart, ingenious thriller.” Shawn Edwards, FOX-TV “sophisticated, intelligent and powerful.”