State of Play

Kathleen Murphy, Special to MSN Movies, calls State of Play 'Sex, Lies and Newsprint'. I couldn't agree more. Helen Mirren is impressive as forthright newspaper editor Cameron, driven to keep her paper relative in an age of blogs, IM, and other instantaneous media. Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe) is her lead reporter, and a very good friend of U.S. Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck). Complicating this friendship is Collins' wife (Robin Wright Penn). She and McAffrey slept together in college and now she can't seem to decide if she wants to stay with Collins or take up with McAffrey. McAffrey's big story: Collins' mistress has just been found murdered. To make sure McAffrey keeps his personal relationships from tainting the story Cameron also assigns a junior reporter and blogger Della (Rachel McAdams) to the story. Della is a very young and attractive Monk to McAffrey's sage and tossled Columbo. Keep a sharp eye out for Jeff Daniels as a senior legislator, his portrayal of a sage politician using any situation to his own advantage is perfect. Ben Affleck has matured nicely and is very believable as the clean-cut “rising star” legislator, who is not without faults and secrets. This flick has lots of great actors, but Crowe gives the story momentum and depth as a reporter caught in this untenable situation. P.S. I found it interesting to learn from Ms. Murphy, after I saw this movie, that it is based on a 2003 BBC miniseries.
Check it out...To search the Nesmith Library catalog for movies with your favorite actors : From the library website choose the "Library Catalog" then type "last name, first" then click on "author". You'll find 6 each of Ben Affleck's, Russell Crowe's, and Robin Wright Penn's movies, 1 with Rachel McAdams, and 10 Helen Mirren flicks.

Poster courtesy of MSN Movies

Double Feature!! Duplicity & The Haunting in Connecticut

Ahhhh! I've missed my trips the movies the past couple of weeks due to a touch of vertigo. I just didn't think it would be a good idea to sit in a dark room with huge pictures flashing in front of my eyes. Gratefully my return was met with two great flix! Clive Owens and Julia Roberts are a quirky couple in Duplicity. Both have trust issues, understandably so. Claire Stenwick (Roberts), retired CIA and Ray Koval (Owen) retired MI6 have crossed paths before. Now drawn together by mutual attraction and the desire to retire "comfortably" they begin working for multinational corporations. Just try to keep up with the various plots and misdirections to find out who's using who.

I don't usually take in "scary" movies, but decided that I needed something I wouldn't fall asleep watching. The movie, inspired by the frightening true-life tale of a family that moved into a converted funeral home, Haunting in Connecticut definitely kept my eyes open and made me jump more than once. Not too gory, but very disturbing... The oldest son has cancer and is undergoing some experimental treatments and living through a supernatural attack from the home's previous tenants. This is a good story that ends well, despite the extreme premise and loud noises.