The movie is about a veteran investigative reporter, Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe), who tried and succeeded in uncovering the truth behind the suicide of the mistress of his friend, Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck). Della Frye (Rachel McAdams) is an internet blogger hired by McAffrey’s boss (Helen Mirren) and asked McAffrey to show her the ropes. As they dug deeper into the apparent suicide, they discover facts that led them to believe that it was murder instead.

State of Play has some political overtones and it made the movie more interesting. It also turned out that McAffrey is close not only with the congressman but also with his wife Anne (Robin Wright), who was his girlfriend during their college. But she got nothing to do with the murder so let’s forget about her for a while.

Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe): The newspaper article he types reads: Three Deaths Tied to Gulf War Army Associate New evidence links Rep. Stephen Collins with the suspect in the killings of three people, including Sonia baker, the congressman’s political researcher. When confronted by the Washington Globe with information tying him to suspect Robert Bingham, Collins admitted he had directed his former Army associate to follow Baker after learning that she was secretly on the payroll of military contractor PointCorp. Collins, the chairman of the committee investigating PointCorp’s government deals, said he authorized Bingham only “to observe” Baker. He said he never intended for her to be harmed. “He just did it,” Collins said of Bingham. “He seemed more upset about what she was doing than I was.” When police went to arrest Bingham at his Northern Virginia apartment last night, he was found dead, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A rifle was next to his body. Investigators said they believe Bingham pushed Baker to her death under a Metro train earlier this week and later shot two witnesses, Deshaun Stagg and Vernon Sando, to silence them.

Russell Crowe is a guy I always love to hate but he did a pretty decent job in State of Play. Ben Affleck was perfect as a congressman with big political aspiration. Rachel McAdams held her ground against the two male leads. Jason Bateman played a pivotal role as a big shot PR guy that knew too much.

State of Play is one of the suspenseful thrillers I’ve seen in recent times. It provided all the right twists that made it unpredictable. With all the political scandals we read in the news these days, State of Play provides a very frightful scenario.

The pace of Tenderness is slow but the strong emotions of the characters make up for it. It tried to be a deep, meaningful movie with the theme of change or the lack of it. In a way it succeeded because I felt nothing changed during the course of the movie.

Tenderness has a few questions left unanswered. So we learned that Eric killed his parents and a girl after raping her. Lori is stalking him because she saw what he did and was thrilled by it. But why is the detective so consumed in putting him back in jail? And how is his comatose wife relevant to the story? The movie didn’t even tell us why she’s in the hospital in the first place. Maybe the answers are found in the book by Robert Cormier where the movie was based on. But after watching Tenderness, I won’t put it on my priority list.

I’m not much of a Russell Crowe fan and Tenderness will not convince me to be one. His portrayal of the detective was flat and it didn’t help that the character’s lone mission throughout the movie was to pin down Eric.

Tenderness can be likened to a steamroller, heavy and slow. It wouldn’t keep you on the edge of your seat. The ending was predictable. C’mon, even the detective knew that Eric will commit a mistake sooner or later. It didn’t matter that Lori’s death was an accident and Eric tried to save her.

Tenderness is for Russell Crowe fans. Since I’m not a fan, I don’t know why I saw it in the first place. If you see this now playing on cable, change the channel.

Ridley Scott

Body of Lies got everything you want in a spy movie. It has action sequences that were entertaining. Plus it’ a sociopolitical drama that’s as real as it can get. It’s as if you’re watching a documentary on how Jordanian intelligence agency is operating. Mark Strong as the Jordanian intelligence leader deserves to be praised as well.

Hani (Mark Strong): You Americans are incapable of secrets because of your democracy.

That’s what he thought. Body of Lies is full of twists but it didn’t stray away from the main plot. Ridley Scott should make more movies like this one.

*Spoiler*
Roger Ferris made his own fake terrorist to flash out the real one. Then he thought his girlfriend was kidnapped (she was just taken by the Jordanians). He didn’t know it but he was abducted by the Jordanians and left in the middle of the desert to be taken by the real terrorists. He was tortured but was saved by the Jordanians. In the end, he chose to stay in Jordan.