WikiLeaks in ‘The Fifth Estate’: Reality Is More Compelling Than Fantasy

Despite presenting a nuanced look at the rise of WikiLeaks, The Fifth Estate movie suffers from a heavy-handed script that lacks subtlety and emotional heft.

Based largely on the tell-all books — Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World’s Most Dangerous Website by former spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg, and WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy by Guardian journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding — the film follows WikiLeaks‘ ascent from underground website to international watchdog with the power to topple governments and corporations

While it’s billed as a political thriller, The Fifth Estate is also part buddy film. Director Bill Condon (Kinsey, Dreamgirls) humanizes a complicated real-life and still developing narrative by focusing on the tumultuous relationship between WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) and Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Br