The film itself seems to acknowledge this. Cal rails against the growing culture of instant opinion and blogging represented by his junior colleague Della (Rachel McAdams) and stretches the patience of an editor (Helen Mirren) desperate to halt the decline in sales. That we're meant to be on his side is never in question: from the moment we see him speeding erratically to a possible crime scene, to the rolling of the presses as the final credits go up, this is a film firmly on the side of newsprint.

In between is an absorbing story of murder, corruption and cover-up inside the Beltway, which takes us very effectively back to the big-time conspiracies of 1970s Hollywood. Directed by Kevin MacDonald, who made the excellent The Last King of Scotland, it's an adaptation of a critically praised British TV series by Paul Abbott from six years ago. In all essentials it remains unchanged, although uprooting it from its dank London terraces and substituting Congress for Parliament automatically gives it, whether we like to admit it or not, more heft and glamour, and the whiff of real power.

The further Cal investigates two seemingly quite separate deaths, the more they become linked. One is that of the young female researcher to an ambitious and rising Congressman (played by Ben Affleck), who also happens to be one of the reporter's oldest friends. Personal compromises and conflicts of interest vie with the looming presence of huge corporate interests at work behind the scenes.

This allows for a few wholly predictable political points to be made - the company involved is a massive private security firm doing well out of the Iraq war and the "Muslim terrorist goldrush". But just as the heart begins to sink, the narrative steps back from this and takes another turn which, if you're unfamiliar with the television series, comes as a genuine surprise.