It'd been long enough since I'd seen the original, British State of Play that I could sit down and enjoy the American version from a couple years later. Besides, some things make in inherently different, like adapting the story and characters to a different form of government (and arguably, journalism), but mostly by collapsing a 4-hour mini-series into a 2-hour movie. And in therein lies this version's weakness. The original was a better journalistic procedural and didn't have to rely on quick montages to get the legwork out of the way. And still, 2009's State of Play makes sense of the puzzle and its many pieces for the audience, taking shortcuts yes, but not sacrificing clarity to do it. And it has an impressive cast (including Robin Wright, apparently training for House of Cards), just like the original, albeit more international (in fact, none of the principal characters who work at the newspaper are played by Americans).
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Giacco
decent investigation movie with a few interesting twists.Siskoid
It'd been long enough since I'd seen the original, British State of Play that I could sit down and enjoy the American version from a couple years later. Besides, some things make in inherently different, like adapting the story and characters to a different form of government (and arguably, journalism), but mostly by collapsing a 4-hour mini-series into a 2-hour movie. And in therein lies this version's weakness. The original was a better journalistic procedural and didn't have to rely on quick montages to get the legwork out of the way. And still, 2009's State of Play makes sense of the puzzle and its many pieces for the audience, taking shortcuts yes, but not sacrificing clarity to do it. And it has an impressive cast (including Robin Wright, apparently training for House of Cards), just like the original, albeit more international (in fact, none of the principal characters who work at the newspaper are played by Americans).facundog
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