The Fifth Estate ( review )

 

Director Bill Condon
Screenplay  Josh Singer
Based on Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange and the World's Most Dangerous Website by Daniel Domscheit-Berg WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy by David Leigh and Luke Harding
Starring Benedict Cumberbatch , Daniel Brühl, Anthony Mackie , David Thewlis , Alicia Vikander Stanley Tucci, Laura Linney
Music  Carter Burwell
Cinematography Tobias Schliessler
I was very interested to see this movie but unfortunately I have to somehow agree with the prevailing opinion that while the cast was excellent the story was kind of lacking. The movie has beautiful cinematography, they’ve used cool visual tricks and have an interesting creative ideas of how to represent the virtual world (some less successful than others )… but it seems that even the best actors and pretties visuals doesn’t really mean a good film. I can’t say that the Fifth Estate is a “bad movie” but I can say it’s kind of unsatisfying. I am aware that this is just a movie and not a documentary, but nevertheless , I feel it didn’t add much to the outgoing discussion about WikiLeaks . But lets leave the WikiLeaks issue aside , a movie from this sort should be engaging , provocative and clever, no ? My impression from this films is , however , that in their struggle to make it “entertaining” and to turn it into some kind of political thriller, they missed a great opportunity to create a deeper and more meaningful film. They seem to overlook the essence of the story  in favor of fast cut scenes, cool music and energetic keyboard typing .

 I consider myself quite the wrong person to write reviews sometimes( but I do write them nevertheless )  because I don’t like to say negative things about people ... and yet I need to say that Bill Condon’s last few movies ( I mean the last two Twilight films and the Fifth Estate ) are kind of … lazy (story-wise) . Condon has done some highly acclaimed movies in the past , but the Fifth Estate , as well as the Breaking Dawn  films are movies who lack soul . I'm not going to discuss the Twilight story's virtues or lack of such , but as a random viewer of it , I got this impression that the movie is made in a "boring" , predictable way– beautiful visually , with scenes that are put in order to make us like the characters but are so “static “ and “soulless’ that alienates us instead . Moreover , the Breaking Dawn films have some forced “action” and "excitement " into them while the story is about something completely different. This is the exact same feeling coming from the Fifth Estate ( with the great difference that the cast of the Fifth Estate has done their job amazingly while some of the Twiligh cast members seemed bored with the story themselves . also the subject in the TFE is much much more interesting ) – of a movie that tries to look “cool” but turns out to be too “cold” for my taste .

I have a particular problem with this film - there are a lot of clichés in there . Especially in the way the two main characters are presented– we have Daniel who is the “normal” , “nice” guy and there is Julian who is the weird , anti-social type .  ( and not to mention all the scenes with the US government's people  that looked as if they are based on every other Hollywood movie and not on real events ... )

The creators of the Fifth Estate claimed that the movie doesn’t take sides and that they try to show many points of view but … they often fail to balance those points of you .

 The character of Julian Assange always remains  distant and I think he was not given enough screen time or good scenes to actually … how to say it  – to have a chance to "speak for himself". Then suddenly at the end they add this interview with him as to save the movie from being too biased.
The story never lets him “shine” enough - his speeches are short or cut in the middle and there is not enough time for him to really grow on you. As far as I know Assange from interviews , he might be a little strange but he is really well-spoken and has a special charm . Cumberbatch portrays him quite accurate but just the film doesn’t allow him to really have his moment. Maybe here is the point to mention that Benedict Cumberbatch is really good in this role and is trying to make the character as engaging as he can.

As for Daniel Bruhl , I really like him and I was especially impressed by his performance in RUSH this year . He delivers a very good performance here as well , but in comparison to Niki Lauda , I find Daniel Domscheit-Berg a little bit boring as a character and I blame the script for it again . ( I feel so bad to write negative  things …) In any case , all actors did a very good job – the cast was one of the most positive aspects  of the film . ( I liked also the visual style of the film and the music score ) .

 I was very into the characters , taking them seriously and all … until the dance scene with Benedict and Daniel when I tried so hard not to laugh! ( All their fans should watch the movie for this scene at least! )
 My biggest regret is that I had to I watch this movie dubbed ( ☹ ) and every time I do that I feel I have missed out so I will definitely see it again .

In conclusion I might say that the Fifth Estate has an excellent cast and beautiful visuals and while it manages to create a specific and interesting atmosphere , it fails to deliver a satisfying take on one of the most discussed issues of today.
In any case , I think it’s good they made this film because it might make more people interested in the discussions surrounding WikiLeaks . Above all I hope that most of the people who saw this movie would actually take the advice of making their own research about the newly born “fifth estate” .

review by Viki