The Fifth Estate (2013)
Certified: 15
Duration: 128 minutes
Directed by: Bill Condon
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Brühl, Anthony Mackie, David Thewlis, Moritz Bleibtreu, Alicia Vikander, Stanley Tucci, Laura Linney, Carice van Houten, Peter Capaldi, Dan Stevens, Alexander Siddig
KRS release
Benedict Cumberbatch plays the role of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The story takes us to 2007 when Assange decides to create his notorious website in a quest to expose the deception and corruption of power.
The site was meant to be the refuge of whistleblowers from all over the globe, a place where they could speak freely about what they knew on whatever subject. The possible consequences of this were known – huge damage could be done to governments, mega corporations and famous people – but the system ensured anonymity.
Cumberbatch plays a self-assured, creepy and, at times, dramatic Assange
Daniel Berg (Daniel Brühl) is an IT expert from Germany. He is a follower of Assange and is fervently behind his project. This sometimes leads to clashes with his girlfriend Anke Domscheit (Alicia Vikander), who works with him. In order to strengthen the website’s security, a hacker named Marcus (Moritz Bleibtreu) is brought into play.
The team is further reinforced by Birgitta Jonsdottir (Carice Van Houten) who is a vehement protester of various global happenings.
Soon WikiLeaks is under scrutiny from various entities: The Guardian journalist Nick Davies (David Thewlis) and US State officials Sarah Shaw (Laura Linney), Jim Boswell (Stanley Tucci) and Sam Coulson (Anthony Mackie). The site starts to be seen as a threat to global stability and status quo.
Meanwhile, Assange becomes more and more erratic, and increasingly problematic with everyone, including those nearest to him.
The Fifth Estate works on two levels: it is an observation on how journalism and information is spread across the world today and also serves as a character study of how someone can simply overestimate his importance.
The story of WikiLeaks has been so publicised and is so recent that one wonders whether this film was actually necessary. It was perhaps inspired by The Social Network (2010) which told the story of how Facebook was created. That film had shown that watching people typing on computers makes for compelling viewing!
The protagonist here is Cumberbatch who plays a self-assured, creepy and, at times, dramatic Assange under the direction of Bill Condon (Dreamgirls, Of Gods and Men, Kinsey).
His is a bold performance in a role that is not easy. He holds the film together and is complemented by Brühl, who as the WikiLeaks co-founder, has quite a screen presence. One of the most enjoyable factors here is the relationship between the two and how it changes and evolves.
The other attraction of the film lies in the questions it inspires viewers to ask, such as the questioning of the information we hear on the news.
It is worth noting that the real Assange has been living at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since June 2012 after being given diplomatic asylum. Britain wanted to extradite him to Sweden to face sexual assault charges – charges which he says are only a cover to extradite him to the US to face accusations over the leaks of diplomatic cables.
His saga goes on and could provide the inspiration for further films.