The Fifth Estate

There’s a sad irony to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange disavowing Bill Condon’s film, as like the site’s infamous uncensored document leaks, it displays an overwhelming surfeit of data. Coherence comes second to chronology, impact comes second to information – and there’s a dire need for some editing.
The action spans from 2007 when Wikileaks founder Assange (Bendict Cumberbatch) met Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Bruhl); until just after Wikileaks’ infamous 2010 making available of classified American intelligence supplied by the now jailed Chelsea (née Bradley) Manning. Taking liberal cues from The Social Network, Condon’s film becomes an exploration of the legal and political whirlwind surrounding a brilliant but deeply flawed egoist, and his relationship with his Jiminy Cricket partner.
Cumberbatch’s portrait of Assange is predictably superb, giving a technically flawless portrait of an instantly recognisable figure, that’s still psychologically nuanced and intriguing. Bruhl is also excellent, but his character makes for an unengaging lead. This is partly due to the screenplay, which presents such an onslaught of information that every line of dialogue is forced to stiltedly summarise that moment’s philosophy or dilemma. The exposition is frenetic, but the energy is not.
There’s a sense of over-compensation in the editing, as a battery of audiovisual text and tactics attempt to portray the importance of information sharing, but feel oddly dated.
There’s an innately fascinating tale here, but the impact of important insights into privacy, safety, journalism, and Assange’s character is diluted by the sheer volume of detail and context. The approach betrays a suitable desire to be accurate, but a character study or smaller snapshot would have allowed this superficial film much-needed depth and exploration.
Rent the Wikileaks: We Steal Secrets documentary instead.