“State of Play” may be based on a fictional BBC miniseries, but in its translation from Britain in 2003 to Washington, D.C., in 2009, the star-driven feature tackles realistic themes about today’s troubled newspaper business and corrupt American political system.

While the charismatic likes of Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck and Helen Mirren keep the entertainment value high, meaningful ideas surface about the extinction of investigative print journalism, its replacement with superficial blogging and the effect this trend will have on unearthing dangerous conflicts of interest between greedy corporate entities and our elected officials.