Review of The Fifth Estate (2013) by Makenzie M — 15 Oct 2013

About a third of the way through this limp biopic of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a character asks, "Don't you get bored spending your time with all these wankers? What a waste." A fair assessment.

Despite a snappy score, shiny aesthetics and strong performances from both Benedict Cumberbatch and Daniel Brühl in the central roles of Julian Assange and Daniel Domscheit-Berg (two "clowns with cartoon names off on an adventure"), the producers Anonymous Content have somehow managed to create utterly unexciting content from one of the most gripping and explosive news stories of the twenty-first century.

There is lots of tippety tappety typing, furtive fingers and keyboard clicks accompanied by verbatim voice overs of chatroom discussions, the letters of which appear in large print on the big screen (quite literally filling the void - with yet more void). And there is much hushed and hurried talk of leaks, classified information and going viral. But nothing much actually happens.

The only notable exceptions of dramatic tension occur when Daniel's girlfriend issues him with the ultimatum: choose me or The Project? And the American Government eventually moves to hunt down, delegitimise and prosecute Assange. But the former is fleeting and latter happens far too late in proceedings for anyone to give a St Francis.

"As Oscar Wilde said," quotes Assange, "give a man a mask and he will tell you the truth." Well, as Peter Tame says, give a man a boring film and he will switch off, switch on his phone and search Google for ideas about what to have for dinner. (Spaghetti with pesto and snap peas, if you must know.).

2/5.