The Fifth Estate

This past weekend was a very tough one for me.  If you follow the blog semi-regularly, you may be aware that I have some struggles with anxiety.  For the last week I have been just so drained by it that the smallest things are sending me into anxiety attacks, from my wife tickling me to my normal Saturday breakfast being put on hold a few hours.  When one is in such a point of depletion, we really want something to uplift us.  A story of triumph, of the little guy taking on the giant conglomerate, or hope and victory.  Those are the kind of movies that can really change the outlook one has for a few days and add a breeze that fills the sails for long enough to turn the ship towards friendly shores.  On Friday night I saw The Fifth Estate, and it did not do shit for me.

I don't want to be a bully and really try to nail this film from all sides in order to make myself feel better, but I do want to be honest.  Honesty in this case is saying that this is a boring movie, and it is not worth your time.  It is the story of Julian Assange and the creation of WikiLeaks.  The source material is what helps make this movie become so disappointing.  The source material leads for dynamic characters and a story that left an important mark in history, but what we ended up with is a docudrama on 5 Hour Energy.

There are some times when I am watching a war movie, scenes that have explosions and soldiers flying everywhere, and the use of a hyperactive camera (fast zoom ins, fast pans, shaky cam) feels a little too much.  If it can get distracting on the front line, imagine what it would be like in the offices of a newspaper?  Director Bill Condon really wanted this movie pumped up to the extreme, and the over active camera work was not only distracting but embarrassing.  Mix in an overdose of techno music, and you have The Fifth Estate, a film that does not seem to have confidence that its script or its actors can bring the appropriate amount of energy and tension.

They were right to have a lack of faith in the script.  As I had mentioned, the movie was boring.  We get very few interesting moments, and a lot of filler.  There was a whole story line around characters played by Stanley Tucci and Laura Linney that ended up having no consequence to the story.  The dialogue that we did get gave us characters that we don't really adopt any kind of emotional connection to and whose actions we may not really care about.

Thrown in the mix was a huge art-house feel that Condon was aiming for.  We had a symbolic room which represented WikiLeaks and all of the work done through it.  I understand the visual that he was aiming for, but in this film, and the way in which it was done, it just did not fit at all.  As well, there were some scenes where characters were typing and narrating at the same time, with the words they were typing floating across their faces.  I like it when people try different things and attempt visuals that enhance the story in an artful way, but this was not executed properly at all and became agonizing to watch.

The saving grace of the film were the performances by the leads.  Julian Assange was played by Bennedict Cumberbatch who is known for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in BBC's Sherlock.  Cumberbatch may not be a very well known actor right now, but he will be very soon.  He will be the voice of Smaug in the upcoming Hobbit movie, and also has roles in 12 Years a Slave and August: Osage County.  This man will be gunning for Oscars before we know it, so keep a keen eye on him as he has a great screen presence and an Alan Rickman style voice.  Playing the role of Assange's WikiLeaks teammate Daniel Berg is Daniel Bruhl, who was actually the protagonist of the story.  Bruhl is coming off of a great performance as Niki Lauda in Ron Howard's Rush, and is another actor who has some great potential.

In the end, it is the acting of the two leads that keeps the star rating in a reasonable location.  Take that for whatever you may, but you still don't need to see the film.  Just understand that I am saying these are great young actors and they have good, fresh content in theatres as I type this.  Go see those movies and appreciate their abilities, and, at most, mourn the loss of opportunity to make a high caliber movie, about high caliber source material, with high caliber actors.

Rating - 2 out of 4 stars