November 2, 2013

The Fifth Estate - Movie Review

Another month with discussion about the NSA, the perfect time to release a movie about leaking confidential information of governments and terrorist groups to declare the truth. The movie is quite a bit Anti-USA, like it was the case with Edward Snowden. It's no surprise that the movies failed to gain a standing with US audience. Most people have heard about Wilileaks and the biggest scoops they did in the history of mankind, but do you know what happened behind the scenes? This movie will tell you about it in a dramatic way in the viewpoint of one of its members.

 
The movie follows Daniel Brühl as Daniel Domscheit-Berg, a typical german IT nerd. He has a normal life in a depression work environment, which is only enlightened by the nice smiley of Anke. 
He meets Julian Assange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, one of the greatest current actors, who tries to find followers for his newly created platform Wikilieaks. His belief in freedom and truth lure Daniel to become a member of this fantastic group. To defend these morals Daniel gives up a lot of stuff, like his job and family. Slowly both of them build up what will become the biggest Leak webpage in history. 
Many hardships occur on the way and not everything Julian tells him seem to be the truth. Also their scopes get bigger, that even they can’t handle them anymore. Daniel begins to doubt if Wikileaks is really the right thing…  




 
 The movie is solely lead by these two characters and their relationship. The movie is highly subjective written in the point of view Daniel, based on his released book. It’s no surprise that Daniel seems to be the great and right guy all the time, which drags Julian Assange in the role of the villain. He will become the guy, who gets eager for even more power. No one but these two know if this is the truth, or just exaggerated, but that’s it. 
The movie is not a documentary, but a fictional film based on real life events. It’s mostly about the relationship between these two friends and the gaps that appear over their time. Especially Julian is an interesting character. He shows hints of autism, is highly intelligent and full of flaws. You can understand him and his desire to create something big, that even he can’t control anymore. Like many people in history he claims to hold the sky and falls into a dark pit. This transformation is great illustrated and the best part of the movie. 
The additional information about Wikileaks is also interesting, because we always saw the news, but not the members behind it. A said several times that Daniel Brühl and Benedict Cumberbatch did a great job, but that goes only for these two. Most of the other actors underachieve and feel sometime out of place. The technical aspect of the movie is alright. We get some few nice shots of great capitals like Berlin. The first half of the movie is quite shaky without a reason, as if the cameraman learned halfway through how to handle it probably. The best part is the music, which was quite engaging and fitting, without demanding too much focus.

The movie is a great choice for everyone who want to know more about this interesting event. I can highly recommend it to everyone who loved “The Social Network”. Both of them share a lot of common aspects, like the view of an old friend and the asshole villain that gets famous for it.

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