The title sequence of gay director Bill Condon’s entertaining, globe-hopping drama “The Fifth Estate” shows how information has been disseminated through the ages — from cave paintings to newspapers, to radio, TV and the Internet. The film, which opens Oct. 18 at Ritz theatres, provides this concise history to underscore the impact WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) has had on contemporary news media. Written by Josh Singer, this glossy film details the events leading up to 2010, when Assange leaked classified government military records fed to him by Chelsea (nee Bradley) Manning.
“The Fifth Estate” is not an Assange biopic, although snippets of information about the WikiLeaks founder’s past are revealed. The focus here is how Assange and Daniel Berg (Daniel Brühl) set out to bring about great change by exposing secrets while keeping their own identities secret. It also shows how Assange — who quotes Oscar Wilde when he says, “Give a man a mask, and he will tell you the truth” — went too far. Was it hubris or a true quest for accountability that drove Assange to post the classified information? The filmmakers have opted to present a portrait of the controversial media figure that is one-part character study and one-part character assassination.
The first half of “The Fifth Estate” is best, as it involves viewers in the site’s noble agenda to provide a safe, secure platform for whistleblowers and promote the need for transparency. These ideals drove Assange and Berg to bring down Julius Baer, a Swiss bank, for misuse of funds. The success of their action bolsters the two men. They soon develop a kind of bromance; Berg has effectively been seduced by Assange and his “you and me against the world” attitude.
But the second act, when Assange gets powerful, lacks excitement. He acts moody. He plays power games with Berg as well as Nick Davies (David Thewlis), a reporter at The Guardian who wants to help him break the Manning story. Assange betrays and feels betrayed. He and Daniel even “break up” twice — once irreparably. In retaliation for being “dumped,” Berg seems to rejoice in recounting personal details such as the fact that Assange dyes his hair white.
“The Fifth Estate” is based in part on Berg’s book and, had Condon and Singer taken his character’s perspective exclusively, the film might have been stronger. Instead, several interlocking stories are told, but none of them have sufficient depth. In fact, “The Fifth Estate” almost feels like a Wikipedia entry on the WikiLeaks founder, highlighting just the salient points of his story. The drama that is recreated in the film is mostly done with didactic explanations, pages of text and website coding and platitudes like, “Courage is contagious,” which is used to motivate Berg’s actions.
A prime example of the film’s weakness involves a subplot featuring State Department official Sarah Shaw (Laura Linney). This storyline, which includes secret meetings with a foreign contact, who later makes a tense escape effort, seems forced. Like much of “The Fifth Estate,” it fails to engender heightened emotions.
Despite these narrative flaws, the film’s points are noteworthy. Is it appropriate for publishers like Assange to redefine the public’s right to free information? Was he justified in leaking the controversial “collateral murder” video from Iraq, which shows soldiers killing innocent civilians,and prompted the United States government to respond to war-crime accusations? Or is Assange’s behavior egotistical and reckless, blatantly disregarding the lives of those who might come to harm from being exposed? “The Fifth Estate” posits these questions, showing the benefits and drawbacks of citizen journalists like Assange.
To its credit, Condon shoots the film stylishly. Many scenes feature spinning cameras that capture the heady excitement of what Assange and Berg did. A visual metaphor of a room full of desks, which depicts the “hundreds of volunteers” that Assange tells people the site has, is well utilized.
The filmmaker also coaxes nervy performances from his cast. Cumberbatch’s Assange is an appropriately cold, enigmatic character, and the actor imbues him with just the right level of smugness. Although the film’s coda, which features Assange talking in direct address to the camera, is silly, it still is more revealing than the fact, listed in the end credits, that Assange was charged with sexual assault by two Swedish women. Assange is declared manipulative, but little evidence of this criminal behavior is presented in the film. In contrast, Brühl gives the more forceful performance as Berg. Providing an identification point for viewers, the steely actor makes his frustrations palpable and his character sympathetic.
“The Fifth Estate” does not expose much about Assange that folks familiar with him won’t already know. Condon has made a slick film about an oily subject.