Review of The Fifth Estate (2013) by Warwick B — 07 Dec 2013

Based on two books Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website by Daniel Domscheit-Berg and WikiLeaks: Inside Julien Assange's War on Secrecy by David Leigh and Luke Harding, The Fifth State follows Assange's creation of WikiLeaks from his takedown of the international bank Julius Baer to Bradley Manning's infamous whistleblowing on the US State Department secrets. It is, however, also the story of Domscheit-Berg his geeky tech adviser.

Benedict Cumberbatch gives a sterling portrayal as the awkward Australia genius with tunnel vision motivated by his own self promotion as much to expose corruption, lies and deceit. Daniel Bruhl (Formula 1 driver Nikki Lauda in Ron Howard's Rush) puts in a affable performance as a crusading idealist, and hero of the piece, but never escapes Cumberbatch's shadow.

Like many historical films The Fifth State, played out through first friendship and then rivalry, tells a story taking certain liberties in an entertaining and commercial way. Disjointed but with good performances from it's two central characters, The Fifth State is a decent enough broad overview of real events.