State of Play (spoiler alert)

I've been mulling over the movie State of Play since we saw it last weekend. There's something about newsroom dramas that hook me. Even when it's got some rather threadbare stock characters: the grizzled old-timer, the slick internet newbie, and the sarcastic and tough boss (yay Helen Mirren!!). Maybe it's because we just finished watching the 5th season of The Wire. But anyway, add in the political game of an upcoming senator pushing hearings against a big mean corporation and a deepening murder mystery - The film really felt like a classic, like comfortable slippers (and I don't even wear slippers). Until the last 10 minutes. Then it took a nosedive into...dumbness, is the only word I can think of. Sure the "big bad corporation" was a little thin to me. I liked that...

SPOILER ALERT

....that the corporation wasn't as bad as it seemed. But at the same time, they turned to a really silly end that undercut its classic feel. Maybe I'm overly sensitive, but the insane murderous veteran not only made the whole thing feel hollow (the way it pointed to big powers-that-be but then...oops, after all, it was just a corrupt politician and a crazy guy after all!). It also made it nasty. The trauma suffered by veterans is real. The so-called mental illness is real - a adaptation to war that doesn't translate well back home. So not only was the ending of this movie pointlessly overcomplicated, but it also presented yet more fodder for discrimination and mistrust. It fed the same mentality that created a generation of homeless Vietnam vets, and is currently feeding the next generation of OEF/OIF homeless and traumatized vets.

That's my soapbox for today.