I fuckin' loved it! This movie felt a lot like the TV show 24, except not in "real-time" and instead of CTU and FBI agents, it follows a group of reporters trying to find the story behind a series of murders and turn up a Capital Hill scandal. State of Play is set entirely in the DC metro area, and they did everything they could to capture the feel of DC from the often icky weather to people drinking out of Redskins mugs, to high profile locations like Chinatown, the Kennedy Center, to Crystal City. It was fun to recognize these locations, not only in name, but for them being real locations. Scenes filmed in the Rosslyn Metro station. I recognized an exit of 66. Obviously we all know the Kennedy Center... That's all well and good, but what all these things, in such casual settings, does is lend credibility to the these characters as residents of this city who know it and love it. It felt whole, not like other "DC" films where there's a couple helicopter shots of the capital and drive over a bridge and maybe a shot outside the Capital. They used the DC Metro, not the LA subway. They walked the walk, you know?The plot was compelling and the action felt well-paced. I was actually shaking throughout the movie because it all had me so worked up. I was into it and I was buying it. In fact, I was completely sold. This movie won't get a perfect five because the twist at the end kind of stole a little bit of the satisfaction I was anticipating and because almost nothing gets a five, but it was really an excellent excellent flick.
