The Fifth Estate

Cast of Characters:

Julian Assange - Benedict Cumberbatch

Daniel Domscheit-Berg - Daniel Bruhl

Sam Coulson - Anthony Mackie

Nick Davies - David Thewlis

Anke Domscheit-Berg - Alicia Vikander

James Boswell - Stanley Tucci

Sarah Shaw - Laura Linney

Director - Bill Condon

Screenplay - Josh Singer

Based on the books Inside WikiLeaks: My Time With Julian Assange and the World's Most Dangerous Website by Daniel Domscheit-Berg and WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy by David Leigh & Luke Harding

Rated R for language and some violence

      Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Bruhl, David Thewlis and Academy Award nominees Stanley Tucci and Laura Linney star in The Fifth Estate, based on the recent true events surrounding WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange. If the review happens to cutout midway through, it may be 'cause I'm being bugged by the CIA and have been forced into asylum.

      Khan's gone all Woodward and Bernstein on us! The Fifth Estate refers to any group that operates outside the norm of society, such as the blogosphere, the greatest of which is right here in front of you. There's my self-plug for the day. Before that you have the clergy (first), nobility (second), commoners (third) and the press (fourth). WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his colleague Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Brühl) team up to become underground watchdogs of the privileged and powerful. With little to no money, no sponsors, and no press backing, they create a platform that allows whistleblowers to anonymously leak covert data, shining a light on a number of dark government secrets and corporate crimes. 

      It doesn't take long until they are breaking more hard news than the world's biggest media organizations combined. However, when Assange and Berg gain access to the biggest collection of confidential intelligence documents in U.S. history (the Bradley Manning scandal), they battle each other and a defining question of our time: what costs are higher, keeping the secrets hidden or exposing them?

      Despite many others already knowing Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes, I didn't get introduced to him until earlier this year when he played Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek Into Darkness. Not only was it a good performance, I felt one of the criticisms of the film was that he was slightly underutilized. Here as the love him/hate him Julian Assange, Cumberbatch is terrific. If hadn't of had me sold earlier this year, he certainly would here, and we still have yet to see him in 12 Years a Slave, August: Osage County and the next Hobbit film voicing Smaug, all due sometime within the remainder of 2013. It's quite a busy year for him. It's a balanced portrayal from Cumberbatch that doesn't demonize Assange, but it in no way makes him out to be a martyr or sympathetic figure. In fact, at times he's rather egotistical and arrogant. Equally strong alongside Cumberbatch is Daniel Bruhl, following his nomination worthy performance in Rush from just a couple weeks ago. As Assange's partner and WikiLeaks spokesman, Daniel is starstruck at first like a Beatlemania fanatic when he is first acquainted with Assange, but as the film progresses their relationship becomes strained the more he sees Assange caring more about exposing a story than any of the consequences that may or may not follow 'cause of it. We also some fine supporting work from the Anthony Mackie, the underrated David Thewlis and the always dependable Stanley Tucci and Laura Linney. However, Tucci and Linney were part of where the film falters. I don't fault them. You can never go wrong with those two. The problem is director Bill Condon and screenwriter Josh Singer using them in such a way where it appears like they're in a completely separate movie. One minute we're watching Domscheit-Berg and Assange exposing a story on bank corruption, next thing we know we're smack dab in front of Linney and Tucci talking about the president of Kazakhstan. Some scenes do work, but I wish Singer would've tied in their involvement with Assange a little more clearer than he does.

      Director Bill Condon adds some nice visual touches that work, but there are also some - particularly a few surreal moments that come off like All the President's Men meets The Matrix - that seem out of place. While the direction and the story come off uneven at times and could've been better, Cumberbatch's complex and compelling performance makes this still worth a watch. I give The Fifth Estate a B (★★★).

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