The Fifth Estate
Benedict Cumberbatch is WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in this dramatised retelling of the heady, early days of the whistleblowing website - culminating in the release of a series of controversial and history changing information leaks. The publicity of the leak brought overnight fame to its principal architects and transformed the flow of information to news media. Based on the books written by Assange's colleague Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Brühl, Rush) and Guardian journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding.
Assange and Domscheit-Berg began things as an underground watchdog of the privileged and powerful. On a shoestring, they create a platform that allows whistleblowers to anonymously leak covert data, shining a light on the dark recesses of government secrets and corporate crimes. They are soon breaking more hard news than the world’s media outlets combined. But when Assange and Berg gain access to the biggest trove of confidential intelligence documents in U.S. history, they battle each other and a defining question of our time: what are the costs of keeping secrets in a free society?
- Director:
- Bill Condon ('Twilight: Breaking Dawn', 'Dreamgirls', 'Kinsey')
- Writer:
- Josh Singer
- Cast:
- Benedict CumberbatchDaniel BrühlCarice van HoutenStanley TucciLaura LinneyAnthony MackieAlicia Vikander
Reviews & comments
Flicks, Matt Glasby
flicksVariety
pressPrimarily hobbles itself by trying to cram in more context-needy material than any single drama should have to bear.
Total Film
pressWith a riveting portrayal by Cumberbatch at its heart, The Fifth Estate tells its story grippingly - but finally leaves us none the wiser.
Time Out
pressBrühl, meanwhile, is saddled with the unenviable task of being this hollow movie’s slow-dawning voice of reason: His climactic conversation with newspaper editor David Thewlis (never worse) is one of the most embarrassingly didactic Way We Live Now™ summations ever filmed.
The New York Times
pressThere is something a little too pat about this narrative, and about the more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger spirit in which it is offered.
The Dissolve
pressCondon seems to hope energetic staging and furrowed brows will compensate for a script that’s essentially an exchange of halfhearted arguments.
Sydney Morning Herald
pressA well-acted but uneven take on recent events that feels strangely superfluous.
Hollywood Reporter
pressCumberbatch's Julian Assange is the highlight of a sometimes ordinary-feeling film.
Empire Magazine
pressDisappointingly dull account of a tale desperately in need of a sharper screenplay and some directorial vim. Might as well wait for the Blu-ray, Jules.
Flicks, Matt Glasby
flicksVariety
pressPrimarily hobbles itself by trying to cram in more context-needy material than any single drama should have to bear.
Total Film
pressWith a riveting portrayal by Cumberbatch at its heart, The Fifth Estate tells its story grippingly - but finally leaves us none the wiser.
Time Out
pressBrühl, meanwhile, is saddled with the unenviable task of being this hollow movie’s slow-dawning voice of reason: His climactic conversation with newspaper editor David Thewlis (never worse) is one of the most embarrassingly didactic Way We Live Now™ summations ever filmed.
The New York Times
pressThere is something a little too pat about this narrative, and about the more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger spirit in which it is offered.
The Dissolve
pressCondon seems to hope energetic staging and furrowed brows will compensate for a script that’s essentially an exchange of halfhearted arguments.
Sydney Morning Herald
pressA well-acted but uneven take on recent events that feels strangely superfluous.
Hollywood Reporter
pressCumberbatch's Julian Assange is the highlight of a sometimes ordinary-feeling film.
Empire Magazine
pressDisappointingly dull account of a tale desperately in need of a sharper screenplay and some directorial vim. Might as well wait for the Blu-ray, Jules.
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