A jittery, arrogant Benedict Cumberbatch portrayal of Julian Assange is about right for the debatably accurate 'The Fifth Estate'. Assange once called the film "a lie based upon a lie" — precisely, it's a thriller based on a pair of WikiLeaks books — but who to believe: Assange himself or writer Josh Singer? It doesn't matter, with each scene seemingly more over-exaggerated than the last in a competent effort to turn this real-life story into Hollywood gold.
Singer paints his lead more black sheep than white hair, but this film is no Van Gogh masterpiece. Assange's and WikiLeaks' rapid rise to water cooler conversation is documented in two hours chock full of Cumberbatch's masterfully deranged speeches (delivered in a delightful Australian drawl), slickly edited montages, and obnoxiously large on-screen city names. It's Cumberbatch who carries the film, adding valuable layers of personality that, again, may or may not be true — is Assange autistic? Easily provoked? Scared? — despite an imperfect but lively enough script. So too he should run the show, with Assange's quest for truth and freedom of information fuelled by a selfish desire for publicity and none of the regard for anybody else's safety that a lesser mortal might feel.
Director Bill Condon trades teen vampires for middle-aged hacks and hackers and instantly finds more success (not a difficult task), but fails to extract the best from his cast en masse. Daniel Brühl smirks and charms his way through as Assange's sole sidekick Daniel, but his girlfriend Alicia Vikander is wasted. Likewise other heavy-hitters: a sleepwalking Stanley Tucci fades away beside Laura Linney, who's given far too little to do, while David Thewlis is denied monologues throughout - and if you're not letting him brilliantly rant, why cast David Thewlis? This isn't a classic but, despite running 20 minutes too long and relying too heavily at times on the editing to keep the pace, it's a fun watch.
Wednesday 28 November 2018
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