Review of The Fifth Estate (2013) by Christopher Llewellyn R — 17 Oct 2013

Judd: Treason and espionage. Toppling governments, banks and world leaders. One man's mission to bring truth and transparency to the citizens of the world. Bill Condon directs and honey-voiced Benedict Cumberbatch and Daniel Bruhl star in Fifth Estate, the story of Wikileaks and Julian Assange. A movie about a man and his website that, in his mind, are one and the same inseparable entity. Oh my god, I totally want to see this.

Swanner: Like a website, this has a lot of interesting elements but what it doesn't have is an emotional tie to its audience. Both Cumberbatch and Bruhl are excellent in their roles but you never like them enough to feel anything for them. After that they never really focus on any one else so there is no emotional investment to the film what so ever. What's going to happen to these two men? Who cares. Josh Singer's screenplay likes to talk too much and all it really does is show what a douchebag Julian Assange must be.

Judd: You forget to mention the movie is painfully boring. Clocking in at two hours and four minutes, the script felt padded. Bruhl's Daniel Berg is given a girlfriend, who may or may not have really existed, for the sole reason of giving him something to do. Without her, the movie could have been 15 minutes shorter and nothing would have been lost. Outside of that, Condon has Assange flying around the world, each location indicated by a stereotypical techno-anarchist font flashing on the screen, while Berg battles for the truth of Wikileaks in a muddled, confusing visual metaphor representing the Wikileaks virtual office. Oh, Laura Linney and Stanley Tucci are there in the mix too, but it doesn't matter.

Swanner: You know that Linney and Tucci were added so American audiences would have recognizable faces. You're right they don't matter but then what does? The film tries hard to be smart but it's so smart that half way through they were talking over my head and I just lost interest. I found myself looking at the art direction and the textures of Bruhl's moustache. I'm pretty sure it was a real moustache but if not great work from the make-up people.

Judd: I don't think that the movie became too smart for you; I think you lost interest because it was so damn boring. Every information release was plagued by the same issues. Was it going too far? Does the leak put the informants' lives at stake? How would the affected entity retaliate? It was the same scenario, over and over again. That's not interesting. As far as telling the story of Assange's personal life, Assange tells a couple stories about a cult and his tumultuous childhood - which could have been lies as we can tell that Assange is not the most upstanding person - he has a son and may dye his hair. Not exactly stuff that's going to knock one back on one's heels. The movie is inexcusably boring.

Swanner: * 1/2.

Judd: * 1/2.