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 the corridors of power in London to the newsrooms and boardrooms of Washington D.C.

Screenwriters Matthew Michael Carnahan, Tony Gilroy and Billy Ray have been forced to excise subplots and entire characters to shoehorn as much of the intrigue and double-cross as possible into two taut hours.

As a result, there are several noticeable holes in the plot, which demand Herculean leaps of logic for the characters to reach their dramatic conclusions, especially in the serpentine final 30 minutes.

Director Kevin Macdonald 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 a subterranean car park.

The film opens with US Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck), the charismatic chairman of a televised committee hearing into defence budgets, breaking down as he relates the suicide of his staff assistant, Sonia Baker (Maria Thayer), to attending journalists.

The media swarms and gossipmongers seize on the possibility of an affair between the congressman and his beautiful aide.

As speculation intensifies, Collins confesses to an affair and begs forgiveness from his wife Anne (Robin Wright Penn). Hard-nosed Washington Globe editor Cameron Lynne (Helen Mirren) assigns veteran reporter Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe), a one-time friend of the senator, to cover the story.

Ambitious rookie Della Frye (Rachel McAdams) pitches herself to Cameron as McAffrey’s sidekick. “Don’t throw those dewy cub reporter eyes at me – it’s nauseating,” replies the editor waspishly, eventually agreeing to the unlikely pairing.

Together, Cal and Della seek answers from powerful senator George Fergus (Daniels) and emotionally unstable public relations guru Dominic Foy (Jason Bateman), gradually uncovering 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 – “Did we just break the law?” asks Della aghast; “Nope, that’s just what you call damn fine reporting,” quips Cal – and Mirren elicits a throaty chuckle with her opening line gambit, which tells you everything you need to know about her in six, salty words.

Affleck looks suitably haggard as a man on the rack for his indiscretion, with solid supporting performances from Daniels, Bateman and co.

Macdonald sustains tension for most of the two hours, only really noticeably losing his footing when he has to hastily knit together the plot strands.

Hollywood continues to save the planet by recycling successful Asian horror films with The Uninvited, a drab English language of Kim Ji-woon’s 2003 supernatural horror, A Tale of Two Sisters.

Directors Charles and Thomas Guard graduate awkwardly from award-winning shorts to this debut feature, which lingers on the fringes of reality and nightmare. A climatic sleight of hand is flagged from the start and poorly disguised by the Guards, working from a pedestrian screenplay.

The film opens with Anna Rydell (Emily Browning) and her boyfriend Matt (Jesse Moss) preparing to take their relationship to the next level at a beach party. She flees the scene and returns home to her terminally ill mother, Lilian (Maya Massar), who has been consigned to the boathouse and has to ring a bell for assistance. Strangely, Lilian has been left alone. Soon the boathouse explodes.

Ten months pass and Anna emerges from a psychiatric facility. Her father (David Strathairn) is delighted to welcome her home, but the family reunion is cut short when he reveals that he has a new girlfriend, Rachel (Elizabeth Banks). Anna’s older sister Alex (Arielle Kebbel) still harbours resentment. The girls make up with a pinky pact, re-bonding over their shared dislike of the new woman in their old man’s life. No sooner is Anna back in her childhood home than she begins to experience disturbing visions of her badly burnt mother . . .