The Fifth Estate
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Bruhl, David Thewlis, Peter Capaldi
Directed By: Bill Condon
Reviewed by Danielle Muir
[rating: 2/5]
Strewth! Benedict Cumberbatch playing an Aussie nerdy hacker turned famous nerdy hacker? Well there’s certainly no denying he has range. AND he manages to steer clear of the abomination that is the Americanized Australian accent – filled with the aforementioned slang.
Sadly this is one of the few merits The Fifth Estate brings to the table. The real story of Wikileaks is filled with backstabbing, unintentional espionage, sex, lies – for Christ’s sake, the stability of the global government was undermined by two guys and a computer! There’s such potential for something gritty, engaging, and thrilling – I always envisioned something akin to The Social Network – instead the film is uninspiring and generic. Seems like a bit of a waste.
For those blissfully unaware of the Wikileaks saga, a handful of years ago a white haired fellow by the name of Julian Assange started a website dedicated to releasing the secrets of governments, politicians, financial institutions and the like. Eventually roping in young office drone Daniel Berg, Wikileaks became responsible for some of the biggest leaks of classified information in history, eventually teaming up with Britain’s most popular news publications to break the stories. But soon things begin to crumble – mostly due to Assange’s pathological lying and inability to trust.
Again – so much thrilling material, so little tension. Cumberbatch, god bless him, looks nothing like Assange, and despite best efforts you just can’t buy him as our snowy-haired crusader. Cumberbatch’s Assange is a little too cool, too hip – when by all accounts the man himself is at heart a bit of a glorified nerd. Well that’s the impression given from Alex Gibney’s doco released earlier this year. Again, props for not ridiculing us Australians with a farcical accent. Daniel Bruhl is on the money as Daniel Berg, but isn’t really given any memorable material.
The whole shebang is just a bit bland – we move from event to event without much fuss, and none of the gasp moments, such as the first time the gang watch the infamous ‘collateral murder’ video to the moment Britain’s newspapers backed this reckless crusader up, packs any sort of wallop. The cuts to a heavily CGI’d imaginary ‘Wikileaks’ headquarters are also a little cringeworthy. Yes, I understand that Berg shutting the website down is a bit of a blow for Assange, you don’t have to show me Daniel tossing up tables, shredding papers and smashing Assange’s desk light to bits. I understand what is going on here.
It really is a shame The Fifth Estate couldn’t be more engaging, considering the characters’ real-life counterparts have such an amazing story. At least there’s not really hope of a sequel, unless we want to watch Cumberbatch sitting in the Ecuadorian embassy for two and a half hours.
