State Of Play

I was listening to the Radio 4 film programme the other day. On it, Kevin
McDonald, the director of State of Play was being interviewed. One of the
questions he was asked was why Brad Pitt had quit the film, and been replaced
by Russell Crowe. McDonald claimed that his intention of the film was to make a
film that seemed to be quite complicated but was actually quite simple. Brad
Pitt wanted it to actually be complicated, so he walked.

Put it another way. This is a film that is too simplistic for Brad Pitt, and
Brad Pitt was in Mr and Mrs Smith.

It's not that bad, really, I just can't see the point of it. There's a
Washington sex scandal tangled up with a congressional investigation into
something or other, and the murder of some people. And so Russell Crowe pokes
it with a stick for a while until it makes some kind of sense. But not much.
The whole thing turns out to be rather less interesting or shocking than you
might initially think.

I'd give it 7/10. In that it's a competent enough thriller, but it doesn't hang
together, and you don't end up giving a fuck what happened anyway.