VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, [5], 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: Monday, December 29, 05:28:53am
Author: Angeleno (pasting the review inside this message!)
Subject: ¡Hola! Maria!! I did get to see the screening of SOP, and I just loved it! Did you see my review on Murph's?
In reply to: M.Dolors *getting ready to go shopping... my fridge is soooo empty it's scary!* 's message, "LOL Angeleno!!! For a momentm with that "thy" I thought you were speaking "Shakespeare" I didn't understand! LOL! BTW... I think you're been so lucky as to have seen a preview of SOP... you need to tell your impressions girl! Here you don't need to keep anything for yourself! ;-)" on Saturday, December 27, 07:50:45am


State of Play -- Screening Review - Marcy

On the drive home tonight, I found myself thinking about what an absolute joy it is to watch your favorite actor play a wonderful role in a really terrific movie. It ranks right up there with a great meal and conversation with friends, or a breathtaking sunset, or a gorgeous piece of music at just the right moment. I feel like somebody just gave me the *best* Christmas present! I'm going to try and give you a little write-up here without getting into spoilers and without sounding too much like just a gushing fan, because usually I'm not, honest! But in case you can't tell, I loved "State of Play."

I should say up front that I haven't seen the original British series, so I have no way to compare this film with the original, but to be honest, I'm glad I didn't see it before I saw this version. I knew nothing about the story except just the bare bones that are out there in the advance publicity, so I had the great pleasure of being swept up in the excitement of the story and just going with it. My advice - if you haven't already seen the original, wait until after you see this version, and try not to find out any more than you have to about the story ahead of time. You don't want anything robbing you of the pleasure of the twists and turns and excitement of this movie.

Matthew Michael Carnahan and Tony Gilroy have turned in a great script! With murder mysteries, usually I can see the twists from a mile away, and by halfway through the movie, I know exactly where it's going, but I was still guessing right down to the end of this one! And truthfully, everything surrounding the central murder mystery is just as interesting as the mystery itself. This movie is actually about something - the state of the press and investigative reporting today, the interaction of corporate conglomerates with both politics and the press, the human cost of the collateral damage that can happen when people are single-mindedly pursuing their own agenda, what happens when you let friendship cloud your better judgement. This movie's got action (including a great foot chase sequence), excitement, genuine emotion between people who act like actual real human beings (instead of idiotic Hollywood caricatures), humor, and for once, praise be, great dialog. Kudos to the writers - great job!!

I can certainly see why Russell was willing to take this one on so late in the game, and he really shines in it. For me, this is by far the best thing he's done since "Cinderella Man." I had a hard time placing this ahead of "3:10 to Yuma," which I loved, but I think he's even better here. I just cannot imagine anybody else playing this character. And he has great chemistry with everybody else in the movie. I love his look in this role, and the quick intelligence that just shines off Cal McCaffrey. (And Russell? Even though you'll probably hate this, just a word about that scene in the black tanktop - only goes to show that you don't have to be 30 years old and have a gym-cut body to be just sexy as hell. Let's hear it for *real* men!!)

The acting across the board is terrific in this movie, and there are a lot of very familiar faces, some of them in very small roles. (I'd like to give a shoutout to the great Harry Lennix, who is wonderful here.) Rachel MacAdams is terrific, and best of all, believable. It seems like good, smart roles for women are in short supply, and she really made the most of this one. And the awesome Helen Mirren? What can you say that hasn't already been said? Any movie she's in is instantly better because of it. I'd also like to say how pleased I was to see Ben Affleck in a good solid role, and he does a very good job with it. I think he's a truly underrated and unfairly maligned actor, and I was really glad to watch him sink his teeth into a substantial role.

The tech work here is first class, and the movie looks terrific, especially considering that this screening was of a work in progress, and it isn't finished yet. I'm not surprised that it looks great, considering that they have Rodrigo Prieto as cinematographer. (I just recently posted a list of my 10 favorite cinematographers on a forum I frequent, and he was on the list!) The editing is first rate as well. This film *moves* from beginning to end! They've done a great job of keeping the tension ramped up and making sure they earn their twists when they come.

They asked us specifically about the music in the after-the-film questionnaire, and to tell you the truth, with one exception, I don't remember the music (which is very unusual for me), probably because I was so swept up in the story. But Alex Heffes did the original music for one of my favorite soundtracks ever, a little Scottish movie called "Dear Frankie," so I'm guessing I'm going to like this one when I get a chance to listen. They used a terrific rap song over the end credits, which I'm hoping they're going to actually use when they're finished. And that's saying a lot for me, because I normally (about 95% of the time!) despise the songs they tack on to movies over the credits. It's one of my pet peeves about Hollywood movies. However, this one actually fits the movie and has a reason for being there!

The one musical exception I mentioned above is the scene that introduces Cal McCaffrey at the beginning of the movie. This may just be my favorite scene in the entire film, and I just adored the music they were using. I'm not going to describe it, because you all should have the fun of discovering it yourselves!

I'm a great fan of director Kevin Macdonald's last picture, "Last King of Scotland," and after this one, I'm certainly going to be on the lookout for whatever he does in the future.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:


[ Contact Forum Admin ]


Forum timezone: GMT-5
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.