State of Play
Universal Pictures | Release Date: April 17, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
11
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
It's tricky, it's surprising, and it's largely faithful to the original mini-series, but in context it's a nonevent. It's like a time bomb that's never dismantled but never explodes. The movie is good enough that the ending leaves you … not angry, exactly. Unfulfilled. Read full review
60
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
An effectively involving journalism-cum-conspiracy yarn with a bang-bang opening and a frantic closer. Read full review
60
The New YorkerDavid Denby
Crowe has an animal quickness and sensitivity, a threatening way of penetrating what someone is up to, a feeling for weakness in friends as well as opponents. He seems every inch a great journalist; it's not his fault that the filmmakers let the big story slip through their fingers. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
There is nothing we haven't seen here before in terms of chases, intrigue and betrayals, so for all its A-list cast and production values, the film comes off as routine. Read full review
50
TimeRichard Corliss
The film's director, Kevin Macdonald, who did "The Last King of Scotland," is not a flair fellow. The chase scenes interpolated into this version have no special oomph; the encounters no residual kick. Paging Ridley Scott? Oh, sorry, too late. So there it is: another film that can't compete with a TV show. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey
Somehow when State of Play should be at its stomach-clenching best, the tension simply evaporates. Read full review
50
SlateDana Stevens
After a bracing first hour, State of Play defaults on the most basic promise of the conspiracy thriller. Instead of luring us down an ever-darker and twistier path, it strands us in a tedious and ill-designed maze. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
This manages to make the real seem generic, rather than the other way around. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Those Hollywood tricksters have managed to shorten the story while slowing the pace -- all of a sudden, minutes are passing like hours. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
There's simply too much stuff for a two-hour feature, and three writers, including Tony Gilroy, haven't figured out how to boil it down into a readily comprehensible narrative, or how to solve the problem of an ending that goes blah rather than bang. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
A superficially clever, self-important and finally incoherent thriller. Read full review
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