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State of Play (film)
Aug. 14th, 2017 01:32 amKnowlingly watching the US film version right after watching the source material pretty much guaranteed that I'd dislike the film version, but I kind of knew that.
Obviously the film felt very truncated compared to the series and a lot of characters were removed from the story. In some ways that was a good thing, since you can only do so much in two hours, but it also made some of the remaining characters seem like miracle workers for accomplishing as much as they did. (And a few of the characters that were left in this version still ended up feeling like they were just taking up space and not accomplishing much?)
I was supremely happy that 1) they axed the romance subplot, and 2) that they didn't shoehorn in a new romance subplot between Russell Crowe and Rachel McAdams.
I also read a little background on the production of the film and I think I would have liked it more if the original actors had stayed on board (Brad Pitt as Cal & Edward Norton as Stephen). I think that also would have helped with the perceived ages of certain characters (Ben Affleck, 37, married to college sweetie, Robin Wright, 43, both of whom went to college with Russell Crowe, 45 - I had trouble ignoring how young Affleck was compared to the other characters considering what their relationships were supposed to be. He just *looked* too damn young!)
Obviously the film felt very truncated compared to the series and a lot of characters were removed from the story. In some ways that was a good thing, since you can only do so much in two hours, but it also made some of the remaining characters seem like miracle workers for accomplishing as much as they did. (And a few of the characters that were left in this version still ended up feeling like they were just taking up space and not accomplishing much?)
I was supremely happy that 1) they axed the romance subplot, and 2) that they didn't shoehorn in a new romance subplot between Russell Crowe and Rachel McAdams.
I also read a little background on the production of the film and I think I would have liked it more if the original actors had stayed on board (Brad Pitt as Cal & Edward Norton as Stephen). I think that also would have helped with the perceived ages of certain characters (Ben Affleck, 37, married to college sweetie, Robin Wright, 43, both of whom went to college with Russell Crowe, 45 - I had trouble ignoring how young Affleck was compared to the other characters considering what their relationships were supposed to be. He just *looked* too damn young!)