Browser’s Magnificent Seven

State Of Play 6.25pm beIN Movies Stars

AN ABSORBING political thriller about dirty dealings and cover up in the corridors of power in America. In the smoke-and-mirror world of high politics, all is not what it seems.

This message is given added topicality by current goings on at the White House.

Russell Crowe convinces as Cal McAffrey, a slovenly Washington journalist who smells a rat when a political aide to rising Congressman Stephen Collins, alias Ben Affleck, turns up dead.

McAffrey suspects a sinister connection to two other recent unexplained deaths.

The reporter is often at odds with his hard-nosed editor Cameron Lynne, alias Helen Mirren, but is helped by his partner Della, an expert blogger played by Rachel McAdams. They are on the trail of high-ranking politician George Fergus, played with sinister relish by Jeff Daniels.

Kevin Macdonald directed this intricate thriller in 2009, based upon the successful British television series of the same name by Paul Abbott six years earlier.

Radio Times called it: “An excellent conspiracy tale. More overblown than All The President’s Men, but as in that 1976 classic the real intrigue unfolds behind closed doors.”