BOTTOM LINE: “State Of Play” is a fairly pedestrian espionage thriller with a great cast that sets up a potentially fascinating government conspiracy plot but descends in to one too many predictable twists before an unsatisfying and untidy conclusion.

THE GOOD: Director Kevin Macdonald has used “State Of Play” to go back to a more old-fashioned style of thriller that is rarely seen these days. The premise of two different murders coming together to unravel a plot involving the privatisation of the defence industry in America is certainly a unique take on the usual US government political thriller story, particularly with its hinted connections towards terrorism in the 21st century. Macdonald has assembled a first rate cast, led from the front by a more sedated Russell Crowe who plays journalist Cal McAffrey. He is friends with Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) and before long, these two old friends find themselves embroiled in a situation bigger than they could imagine with a private defence firm looking to secure its interests by trying to get Collins to stop his attack on those interests. The story unravels slowly, and director Macdonald attempts to lay all the pieces out like a jig-saw puzzle and at times makes for some compelling drama. A sequence where McAffrey inadvertently find himself at the home of the main killer is very tense, as is his subsequent escape. Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren and Robin Wright Penn round out the cast perfectly, making the film intriguing enough to sit through and find out exactly what is going on.

THE BAD: “State of Play” never hits the ball out of the park. The execution is pedestrian in nature, and as such, never really plays itself out to be the political thriller it could have been. As a result, the twists in the story become a little predictable; even if you cannot guess what the next twist will be you get the sense that one is coming, particularly in the climax when the Collins character reveals himself to be something entirely different to what we would have expected. The untidy nature of the ending also leaves a lot to be desired. The film carefully puts all these pieces of the puzzle together establishing links between the private defence firm and its attempts to control contracts for domestic security, even to the point of being quite clear, but then muddles the whole thing but introducing a twist that is in itself clear but does not do much to explain how it fits in to the rest of the plot. If anything, it almost raises inherent contradictions in the motives of the bad guys and does not seem to make sense. At any rate, the actors make the effort to make this all work and the film does have its moments despite being let down by an untidy conclusion.