CinemaRatty: Brit State of Play Mini-Series on DVD

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Brit State of Play Mini-Series on DVD

2008-03-06 19:01:13 by Variety.com * in Thompson On Hollywood

The 2003 BBC mini-series State of Play made riveting watching, and it was no surprise when director David Yates was put on the Harry Potter movies, nor when Working Title scooped it up for a movie remake directed by Kevin Macdonald, which was originally to star Brad Pitt, but thanks to the Writers Strike, now stars Russell Crowe. The original is now out on DVD, reports Stephen Schaefer:

Is “State of the Play” the greatest miniseries ever made? The BBC’s six-hour “State of Play” is only now being released on DVD in the US, five years after its 2003 debut and many months before the Hollywood Americanized version starring Russell Crowe enters Oscar’s end of the year sweepstakes.
Smartly topical and smart about journalism and the power plays that govern our lives, “State of Play” is a perfectly pitched conspiracy thriller that begins with two deaths: The stalking and assassination of a black youth on the streets of today’s London and the apparent suicide of a beautiful, blonde research assistant to up-and-coming politico Stephen Collins (David Morrissey in a career-defining portrait).

When Collins breaks down giving a statement to the press about his assistant Sonia Baker, the tabloids smell blood and go to town. “State of Play” centers on the nicely, appropriately named Herald newspaper as these deaths are linked by its intrepid team of reporters led by Cal McCaffrey (John Simm), his colleagues Della Smith (Kelly Macdonald, so unforgettable as Josh Brolin’s Texas wife in “No Country for Old Men”), Helen Preger (Amelia Bullmore) and Pete Cheng (Benedict Wong), their boss, the elegant Cameron Foster (Bill Nighy).

As a story unfolds that gradually spins ever upward, we discover that Cal is Collins’ former campaign manager, that he has a yen for Collins’ estranged wife (Polly Walker, as good here as she was in HBO’s “Rome” though hardly as evil) and that Sonia’s ex Dominic Foy (an unforgettable turn by a new face, Marc Warren) may have the information and the truth about why she died.

There are a couple of cops whose lives are in very real danger and a charming freelancer (James McAvoy, beginning his road to international stardom) who joins the Herald team. Think of “All the President’s Men” and today’s oil cartels and, yes, how the BBC “Traffic” was turned into an Oscar-winning Hollywood movie.