Review of The Fifth Estate (2013) by Niloo R — 21 Jul 2014

This was a technically proficient film, and contained an excellent performance by benedict cumberbatch. as a filmic representation of morally ambiguous events, and as a complex character study of a controversial figure, however, the film was rather disappointing.

it had, I believe the intention and ambition to shed light on the facts surrounding wikileaks, while analyzing the character of of julian assange, but ultimately failed to do both ambitions justice, which resulted in a mediocre, superficial and biased film.

the film did not leave much room for moral debate and personal reflection, as it promised to do, and though there were moments of thematic importance and truth, they were often stated rather than shown through the journey of the characters.

I think as an adaptation of david berg's book, this film was doomed from the start, by trying to cover everything the book entailed within the span of two hours. what the film should have done was choose a path - either a straight-forward thriller recounting the wikieaks scandals that would be deeply explored and morally challenging, or a detailed character analysis of julian assange that would be fascinating and also morally challenging.

as the film stands, it does not cover the facts of the wikileaks in enough depths, whizzing through milestone moments and brushing past major conflicts, to a point that viewers unfamiliar with the issue are left disoriented.

the character of assange is also rather superficial - he is initially portrayed as the typical genius eccentric who blurts out moments from his troubled past at intervals in the film where we are supposed to sympathize with his radical actions.

then he is turned into a psychopathic villain who's actions are described by his destructive and ever-expanding ego. had the film's protagonist been assange, rather than burg, so that we could truly get inside assange's head and understand his complexities, the film would have been much more engaging.

what makes me sad about this film is that it had all the ingredients to be a great, topical film, but ultimately squandered those ingredients by opting for an the easiest, most superficial solution and interpretation at every level.