The
Fifth Estate tells the story of the rise of WikiLeaks, a website
that, since 2006, has been an outlet for whistle-blowers and other
anonymous sources to post news-worthy secrets and classified
information under the guise that information is freedom. Benedict
Cumberbatch (Star Trek Into
Darkness, The Hobbit) stars as
enigmatic WikiLeaks founder and director Julian Assange, who would go
from computer hacker to the figurehead for one of the most subversive
movements on the internet -- a man who was feared by governments,
hated by corporations, and praised by those who think these entities
have far too much power over individuals.
To help create and maintain the site, especially in regards to its
ability to assure complete anonymity and security, Assange recruits
programming guru Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Bruhl,
Rush) as a co-founder. Though Daniel is initially on
board for Assange's crusade, eventually he begins to suspect that the
site's overwhelming popularity has created an egomaniac in Assange,
whose belief that he is righteous is clouding his judgment and is putting
many innocent lives at risk.
With The Fifth Estate,
director Bill Condon (Dreamgirls,
Kinsey) tries to do the near impossible,
and that's make people typing and coding on a computer something that
elicits thrills to movie-going audiences. Does he succeed? Not quite,
but it's a valiant effort. Condon attempts to use metaphors for the
significance of each act through a series of visuals of a virtual room
of users, all of whom seem to be Assange himself, a nod to the fact
that Assange was a chihuahua puffed up to try to look like a big dog
through the creation of a bunch of alias sources claiming to be
working for WikiLeaks. When someone deletes a bunch of files, we see
burning and ash, the equivalent of arson to a warehouse full of files
so that your average filmgoers will understand just how important all
of that lost data had been. Condon also likes to punctuate
scenes with shortcut symbolism by having characters wear t-shirts with
various icons or having walls painted with various iconic figures in
history (Che Guevara, Albert Einstein) as a way to draw parallels
between Assange's story and the fight for information throughout
history.
The best aspect of The Fifth Estate is the
acting, particularly in Cumberbatch's nearly spot-on portrayal of
Assange, at least in his public persona. Despite this, Assange remains
a mystery throughout, as the script only offers a few glimpses into
what makes him tick, though we're never quite sure what's a true
revelation and what's just misdirection on his part. It's not exactly
the most accurate account of events, as some of the story threads are
abbreviated for time and/or ease of understanding, and some of the
characters (especially in the media and government) are amalgams. Assange's
tawdry
scandal with two women in Sweden, perhaps the one thing people know
best about Assange as a person, is ignored until the pre-credits
summation.
The Fifth Estate is a
mostly glossy, surface-skimming look at a very complex set of
international issues, meant for those viewers who are uninitiated to just what
WikiLeaks is and how it has affected the way confidential documents
are stored, and the avenues by which whistleblowers come out to the
media. The film mostly covers the period starting with how information
published on the website ended up taking down baking giant Julius Baer
up through the immense controversy surrounding the leaking of over
90,000 U.S. State Department documents surrounding the War in
Afghanistan, by whistleblower Bradley Manning.
This
is the second film of 2013 about WikiLeaks and Assange, and by most
accounts, the documentary that came first (We Steal Secrets: The
Story of WikiLeaks) does it better. It's just
not a story that lends well to a dramatized presentation, and though
the issues are important, they don't exactly make for an interesting
plotline or for characters we enjoy following without a thematic
underpinning to wrap it all around, much in the way that the mostly
fictitious but highly watchable The Social Network does. It's
based on accounts written in two books, one written by Daniel Berg
himself, and the other an expose on Assange by David Leigh and Luke
Harding. Not surprisingly, both books having been claimed by Assange
as factually inaccurate, as well as the films that have been based on
them.
If you're interested in the subject matter but aren't
really sure where to begin, The Fifth Estate an interesting starting point
to whet your appetite, but
those who already know the full and accurate story will likely be bored, while those who
are wholly unfamiliar or uninterested will likely not find it good
enough as a movie, or even a basic story, to want to sit through for
over two hours. The Social Network had been a success because
Facebook is a website that hundreds of millions use
and understand. WikiLeaks is a site that comparatively few non-media
people visit, mostly gaining notoriety due to it being the source for
many bombshell releases from anonymous sources.
The Fifth Estate feels like a film
that might find a better home if it were an HBO original movie rather
than a major motion picture release. While the stakes involved may be
high, this dramatization yields low returns as a film, and with a
helping heaping of embellishments, it isn't even worthwhile as a
realistic account of events. It's a better bet, for those looking for
a more interesting take, to stick with the books and the documentary
--
or even just a Wikipedia recap.
