Sunday, April 26, 2009

State of Play, the miniseries

State of Play is in theaters now with Russel Crowe, Ben Affleck, and Rachel McAdams. The movie is based on a BBC mini-series by the same name. I was very interested in this movie, loving a good newsroom story as I do, (see side bar for great newsroom movies) but thought that first I should see the miniseries. So I did. The BBC version is a 6 part series with great stalwart British actors such as Bill Nighy, and new on the scene super cute actors like James McAvoy. It tells the story of a friendship between a politician and a journalist and a murder of the politician,s lover. It’s a fast paced drama with intrigues around every corner and a team of journalists working together to solve the mystery. Kelly McDonald plays the Scottish cub reporter who is so darn cute (I can see Rachel McAdams in this part) and is great in the part. Bill Nighy as always is hilarious as the newspaper editor. This movie was pretty darn entertaining. It took a while to get used to the accents but in the end very enjoyable. I am now very curious about how they will make this 6 hour min-series into a 2 hour movie, Hollywood style. I’m sure it will not be as good, she said cynically, but I still want to see it.

2 comments:

blakecgriffin said...

I only got 20 minutes into this film (the American one) before I got called in to work. But I've heard rave reviews about the British mini-series. Thanks for the review, I'll have to borrow it from my bro=in=law and give it a look see before I attempt the movie again.

Mary's List said...

I will, of course, see the hollywood version and write about it even though I am wondering how it will be. How was the first 20 minutes?