Richard Bell samples ANGELS in LITTLE CLARENDON ST, OXFORD. Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren, Robin Wright Penn, Jeff Daniels, Jason Bateman, Maria Thayer. Director: Kevin Macdonald. ADAPTED from the six-part 2003 BBC mini-series created by Paul Abbott, State Of Play is a timely political thriller about the tug of war between morality and sensationalist headlines. The skeletal narrative of the award-winning six-hour television programme is untouched, transplanted from London to Washington DC. Screenwriters Matthew Michael Carnahan, Tony Gilroy and Billy Ray have been forced to chop subplots and entire characters to shoehorn as much of the intrigue as possible into two tense hours. As a result, there are several holes in the plot, especially in the final 30 minutes. Director Kevin Macdonald (The Last King Of Scotland) punctuates the snappy dialogue with some terrific, suspenseful set pieces, including a shocking turn of events in a hospital room and a deadly game of cat and mouse in an underground car park. The film opens with US Congressman Stephen Collins (Affleck), the charismatic chairman of a televised committee hearing into defence budgets, breaking down as he discusses the suicide of his staff assistant to journalists. The gossipmongers seize on the possibility of an extra-marital affair. As speculation intensifies, hard-nosed Washington Globe editor Cameron Lynne (Mirren) assigns veteran reporter Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe). Ambitious rookie Della Frye (McAdams) is picked as McAffrey’s sidekick and together they uncover a deadly conspiracy. State Of Play is a slickly orchestrated distillation of far superior, small-screen source material. The verbal jousting between Crowe and McAdams shapes their on-screen relationship nicely, while Mirren elicits a throaty chuckle with her opening line gambit, which tells you everything you need to know about her character in six, salty words. Affleck looks suitably haggard as a man on the rack for his indiscretion Macdonald really only loses his footing during the big showdown.