The Fifth Estate is arguably one of the more controversial films to come out within the recent past"“perhaps since Zero Dark Thirty. Focusing most on the origins of Wikileaks and Julian Assange, the site's editor-in-chief (or founder, if you listen to the film), Fifth Estate vacillates wildly between trying to laude the Wikileaks and smear Assange as being a crazed man. While the actual performances from the cast and the cinematography are fantastic, the story itself has enough flaws to bring the film to a bit of a halt for me.
Cumberbatch as Assange has managed to encapsulate such distinct mannerisms and a very specific style of speaking that it's actually a bit disturbing. Having seen We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks, a documentary containing footage of Assange speaking at conferences in addition to some talking head interviews, I feel fairly comfortable saying that Cumberbatch definitely did his homework preparing for this role. However, since his character so wildly varies between a revered visionary and a narcissistic jerk, I couldn't always fully enjoy Cumberbatch's performance (which isn't his fault). Make a decision and stick with it.
The story in The Fifth Estate mostly follows what the film leads you to believe is Assange's second-in-command, Daniel, beautifully played by Daniel Brühl. Major events in the development of Wikileaks are glossed over and overshadowed by strange symbolism and a romance in Daniel's life. Arguably the most important informant for Assange, Private Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning is barely mentioned at all. The film spends a great deal of time building up this question of "Who is Assange?" and then never really gets around to answering it, so I walked away feeling rather unsatisfied.
Technically speaking, the opening montage flashed through a series of journalism through the ages: hieroglyphs, printing presses, the telegraph, newspapers, televised news, the internet. It's quite an interesting montage and transitions clearly through history, particularly since Martin Luther's 99 Theses is one of those I remember shown, as is the Berlin Wall falling"“rather apt given the nature of Wikileaks. Some newspaper headline effects and actual news footage from Wikileaks press coverage is also used to progress the film, which lends a certain sense of credibility to The Fifth Estate and also gives a sense of enormity to the idea of just how impactful Wikileaks really is outside of just the United States.
As Assange and the Wikileaks website are quite happy to point out, the facts in The Fifth Estate aren't entirely accurate, particularly the title cards shown at the end of the film. There's actually an annotated script on the Wikileaks website if you're curious about what they think is incorrect. But it's a film made in Hollywood"“when are those ever completely true? See The Fifth Estate for the performances and an overall picture of Wikileaks, not for the historical accuracy.
