Chronicling the rise to power of whistle blowing website WikiLeaks, and it's founder Julian Assange, The Fifth Estate is told through the eyes of Daniel Dumsheit-Berg (Daniel Brühl), former spokesperson for the site, as he is seduced by Assange's (Benedict Cumberbatch) quest to uncover the secrets governments have kept from us.
Directed by Bill Condon, fresh off bringing the Twilight Saga to a close with Breaking Dawn parts one and two, The Fifth Estate pitches itself as part biopic, part political thriller, but never really finds the perfect balance between the two. The story here is interesting, especially Berg's early dealings with Assange, giving us a great deal of insight into the characters, and Condon injects a nice flair to proceedings. The representation of the actual WikiLeaks website as an endless office, multiple versions of Assange and Berg banging furiously away at their computers, is an especially nice touch. But you never get a proper feeling of the stakes here. The stakes were high in real life, but there is no real tension here, as the movie skips through the important events in the life of WikiLeaks, culminating in the 2010 leak of thousands of U.S. military documents that currently has Assange holed up in the basement of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, having been granted diplomatic asylum. That's the movies biggest hurdle, the story is still unfinished, and it lets down the ending a lot. The introduction of a subplot involving U.S. government officials dealing with the fallout from Assange's leaks adds little to proceedings, ultimately going nowhere, and could have easily been dropped to shave a couple of minutes off the run time.
Assange's character feels unbalanced, changing from an activist who genuinely helps people to almost Bond villain status, ready to topple governments with the press of a button, between scenes, but Cumberbatch puts his all into the role. He is almost unrecognisable, hidden behind lank, bleach blonde hair, and his usual menacing drawl switched to an almost perfect approximation of Assange's accent. He plays the role as manipulative but anxious, always looking over his shoulder, and imbues him with a wealth of character. While you never get a feeling of the charisma that made Berg give up his life and job and follow him into the world of high level whistle blowing, it's a performance that ultimately pulls the movie through. Brühl offers fine support as Berg, and plays off Cumberbatch well enough, he doesn't make that much of an impression, which is kind of frustrating since he pulled out all the stops in Rush, which is more than likely playing in a screen down that hall.
Cumberbatch is the star here, putting in a chameleon-like turn as Assange, making the most of a story that, while entertaining in parts, never really engages.
