It was only after the movie finished and I looked up the director (with simmering rage) that I made the horrifying discovery that The Fifth Estate immediately follows the Twilight finale movies on his filmography. No surprise, then, that he ignores the need for taut screenplay, has no idea what to do with Benedict Cumberbatch’s searing intensity, does nothing to add character depth, and can only envision the internet as a row of computers with vaguely crazed sociopaths typing furiously away at the keyboards. Yes, its the internet that made Twilight an overnight success. But Julian Assange’s controversial ideology deserves a bit more finesse than vampire junkies. Seriously, whoever made the trailer did a much better job.
Perhaps the problem lay with trying to have the first mover advantage, somewhat similar to what happened with Jobs. Here was a story with immense potential, but the main protagonist wasn’t supportive of a movie! DreamWorks probably thought it was only a matter of time before someone dramatized WikiLeaks, and went to press with poorly researched material and an inadequate script.
The Fifth Estate unfolds like a half-hearted retelling of the Wikipedia article on Assange, fitting about as much information into the movie as you would glean by skimming through the article yourself. It faithfully touches upon the bare bones of the events that we all know happened, without delving into the personalities or the ideologies that drove them. It fails to trigger a debate about Assange, instead managing to transform him from eccentric visionary to mad prophet with a weird disco boogie to mark the transition. And of course he has a troubled childhood with obscure cult membership thrown in, because that’s cinematic magic. The internet is the afore mentioned office with endless rows of computers with a sandy floor, creepy Cumberbatch clones and a ceiling reminiscent of the Hogwarts main hall that reflected the sky. Hacking is basically indistinct characters on a black screen with scrolling green font. And if you can type without looking at your screen, why, you’ve got mad hacking skills. Everyone has encrypted phones – oooh, technology! – which apparently have only one ringtone. Hackerspeak consists of inanities like “the cat’s out of the bag”.
It is a deeply unsatisfying movie, perhaps because it relies heavily on information that hasn’t been put out there by Assange himself but by biased accounts from people who thought they knew him. I’m inclined to agree with Assange, who apparently wrote to Cumberbatch urging him not to make the movie. This is a movie that never should have been made, certainly not with this script and this director. Bill Condon and screenwriter Josh Singer – please watch The Social Network. Now that’s how you make a movie about an essentially unlikeable but charismatic technology geek who transformed the information age.
My Rating: 2/5 (+0.5 for Daniel Bruhl; +1.5 for Benedict Cumberbatch)
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