The problem with true stories is that they always feel messy, imperfect, unfinished. For its first hour, Bill Condon’s primer on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is perfectly serviceable – if far from subtle, like reading a Wikipedia page on CAPS LOCK.
Adapted from two tell-all books, Josh Singer’s script does some nimble work introducing the concept of WikiLeaks and the whizzy world of global “churnalism”. But there are few surprises on which to hang a compelling tale, and most of the drama necessarily involves slammed laptops, server problems and earnest young men typing with computer monitors reflected in their glasses.
As Daniel Berg, the man who helped Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) challenge the strictures of traditional journalism, Daniel Brühl is solid, as are the supporting cast (including Laura Linney, Stanley Tucci and Alice Vikander), although nobody has too much to do – it’s all about Assange. With a drowsy Australian accent and Mr Whippy hair, Cumberbatch plays him as autistic and otherworldy, the Morpheus of a long-forgotten Matrix. By contrast, Linney and Tucci’s US state officials seem so nice and reasonable it practically constitutes a character assassination – irresponsible stuff when a man’s freedom still hangs in the balance.
Whether Assange is a journalist or a terrorist is the key question here, but the film seems pretty certain, ending with him sneering at the camera as if confessing to a documentary crew. Unfortunately the irony of spinning an unconvincing fiction about a man who stopped at nothing to tell the truth is something even film-making this polished can’t overcome.
‘The Fifth Estate’ Movie Times
