Journalists are often regarded as egomaniacs who think they’re the most important people in the world.

“State of Play” makes the case for at least top 10.

Cal McCaffrey (Russell Crowe) is a seasoned reporter at the Washington Globe, covering a seemingly drug-related murder when a congressman’s research aide dies under a subway train.

The aide, Sonia Baker (Maria Thayer), worked for Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck), an old friend of Cal’s.

Cal’s editor, Cameron (Helen Mirren), sees his friendship with the congressman as an asset rather than a conflict of interest, and assigns him to the story.

She pairs him with political blogger Della Frye (Rachel McAdams), who is more accustomed to writing political gossip than investigative reporting.

It turns out that Collins and Baker were having an affair, and that she apparently committed suicide. Frye and Cameron are content with the affair/suicide story.

Yet Cal remains unconvinced of the suicide. The congressman was on a committee investigating private defense contractor PointCorp — think Blackwater — and the aide was helping him with research. Cal thinks the contractor might have had a hand in Baker’s death.

The film was adapted from a six-part BBC miniseries, and it shows. The sheer amount of plot twists makes “State of Play” reminiscent of “24.” But the nature of the cover-up’s investigation makes the twists thrilling instead of outlandish.

Crowe’s performance is excellent and matches the film’s intent perfectly. Rather than idealizing objectivism, director Kevin Macdonald (“The Last King of Scotland”) elevates the old-fashioned reporting process.

Financially minded editor Cameron thinks the story should run as soon as possible, incomplete or not. Blogger Della believes writing about political gossip is reporting.

Even though Cal has a clear conflict of interest, the step-by-step nature of his investigative reporting enables him to sift through the deceptions and distractions to find the truth.

“State of Play” is to journalism what “Rocky” is to exercise. It’s a more dramatic portrayal of how painstaking traditional reporting can be. It’s a refreshing ego boost for journalists, who have been hit hard since the Internet made their work available for free.

Part of the brilliance of “State of Play” is its restraint. It would have been easy to make Cal the gruff, unyielding journalist talking down to Della, the naive, useless blogger.

Instead, Cal teaches her with patience and sets high expectations for her. It isn’t long before Della values the journalistic principles and processes as much as he does.

It’s also a knock on part-time citizen journalism. Joe Somebody with a 9-5 job and a Blogspot account can’t spend hours of his life making phone calls, perusing records, visiting mysterious addresses and actually interviewing people.

The film also addresses modern journalism’s most pressing issue: survival. The fictional Globe’s financial difficulties mirror those of real newspapers, but Cal is convinced people still value journalism.

Hopefully, “State of Play” can convince everyone else.

Reach the reporter at cogino@asu.edu.