The Fifth Estate - Reviewed

In 2010 a shiver went down the spine of the US government when a group known as WikiLeaks became more than a computer-literate irritant... and turned into one of the most controversial groups on the planet as thousands of  top secret documents questioning the conduct of the US's presence in the Middle East  were uploaded and made available for all and sundry to examine. This wasn't a scandal, it was a mountain of scandals, lifting the rock on many activities that had been plausible-denied and taking place in secret. It was the kind of event that could bring about revolutions and take down administrations. The accusations were largely true and now verifiable... but the fallout was going to be just as dramatic. The founder of WikiLeaks was Julian Assange, a thin white duke of a hacker with a mission that was as singular as his own personality was complicated. Attention began to turn from the uncovered scandals to the motives and actions of Assange himself. He now had a world of enemies, but would he turn out to be his OWN worst enemy as the people he trusted most began to distance themselves from his actions and attitude..?

The Fifth Estate is a strong drama, ably directed by Bill Condon (more recently the man at the helm of the Twilight franchise)  that tracks the anarchic and shadowy events that led up to the distribution of massive amount of documents, delivered to WikiLeaks by whistleblower Bradley Manning and the consequences that still resonates in its implications today. It also shows how Assange and the organisation began, some of the lies behind the truths and how various people and institutions got compromised in the process. Think of it as a Tinker, Tailor, Journalist, Hacker...

Cumberbatch, who seems to be making a solid career of playing psychologically-compromised people in recent years, gives a strong performance complete with Assange's signature bleached-white hair, gutteral voice and nervous tells. It's clearly not a sympathetic portrayal per se but the actor does manage to convey the internal conflicts as well as the brusque tone. It's easy to understand why Assange will hate the film and the audience need to be aware that that it certainly depicts a point-of-view of theh man  that shows him as flawed and his ex-WikLeaks partner  Daniel Domscheit-Berg as the more noble of the two pivotal cyber-hackers (Berg wrote the Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website book on which the film's account is partly based).  Berg is played with a quiet intensity by Daniel Brühl who was also seen on excellent form in the equally good Rush and though you may question how authentic the events may be, the acting feels honest within the confines of the script. The supporting cast, though many in little more than cameos, includes Laura Linney, David Thewliss and Peter Capaldi - giving a glimpse into the wider world influenced by the notorius info-dump...

The real problem here is practical  as well as deeply profound. This is a story about one man who (says he) believes that the truth will set everyone free, that not a single word should be redacted or hidden from the public and that an unvarnished truth is the only way to present something - that anything else or anything less is ultimately goverend by spin or an agenda.  While there could be any element of sympathy for that position in theoretical form, it's also easy to see the inherent problems with that in reality - shouted vocally at the time and also raised prominently in the film... that in exposing everything and not obscuring some details you can do serious damage to innocent (or well-meaning) parties. The decision for WikiLeaks NOT to keep certain details obscured immediately put such names, who were sometimes acting for a greater good, at direct life-threatening risk. It's suggested Assange doesn't care. The public and the audience might well feel that was a reckless and inconsiderate move for Assange to take.  The irony here is that looking at The Fifth Estate - which presents and skewers Assange as a pathologically damaged individual with a manipulative and troubled personality -  there's also immediately thhe feeling that it has a point-of-view and agenda of its own and you start aching to know more sides of the story - to see if the bigger picture is the same. Your instinct is to demand all the facts and then make a decision on others' actions. Annnnnnd... we're back at the ethical crossroads at the heart of the film once more.

One leaves the cinema conflicted: the film limited by obvious obstacles yet very well executed. It's the counterbalance to Zero Dark Thirty, equally as wordy, complex, morally-fragile, flawed but from a different viewpoint - a fascinating if dispiriting glimpse what goes on behind the curtain. It turns out that those often shielded from view by power or celebrity are just as compromised and full of secrets as the rest of us. We, if we're honest, we all knew that by now. 

Perhaps the most sobering thought is one that Assange would no doubt make himself: a lot of money has been spent on a good-looking drama about the ethics of thhe people behind whistleblowing rather pondering the demonstrable and ethics behind the scandals of our time that actually got whistleblown. 

The Fifth Estate (15) is released by EntertainmentOne and out today...