It could not have been more opportune time for the staging of the Bill Condon creation “Fifth Estate” where Benedict Cumberbatch was truly on fire as WikiLeak’s Julian Assange.
The occasion was the Toronto International Film Festival 2013; an event looked upon with respect and anticipation across the globe.
Movies have always been one of the greatest influences on the American and Canadian societies. As Andy Warhol once remarked; “It’s the movies that have really been running things in America ever since they were invented. They show you what to do, how to do it, when to do it, how to feel about it, and how to look how you feel about it.”
If that is what the objective of movies are then “Fifth Estates” could be considered to be a resounding success with normal as well as elite cine-goers.
Main actor in the movie, Cumberbatch costars with Alicia Vicander. He plays Julian Assange and the story is all about the origins of WikiLeaks. As soon as the film marked the commencement of the 38th International Film Festival in Toronto, it was accepted with enthusiasm by the spectators many of whom were celebrities in their own right.
Success of the actor is not limited to “Fifth Estate alone”. As Clint O’Connor puts it; “The British actor is a 3-fer this year, also appearing in the festival’s other big buzz dramas: “12 Years a Slave” and “August: Osage County.” Just for good measure, “Star Trek In to Darkness,” in which he played the devious Khan, is also hitting stores on DVD.”
The movie revolves round the ongoing controversies over privacy versus transparency that market the revelations made by WikiLeak, especially about the government secrets. Rash of leaks that took place thanks to the media channel, put the government into many embarrassing situations in the past.
Fifth Estate starts with the sentencing of Bradley instrumental in leaking hundreds and thousands of classified documents including the continual travails of Edward Snowden, the whistle blower in NASA’s massive surveillance programs.
With his excellent acting abilities; Cumberbatch enlivens the character of Assange; an expert hacker and computer programmer that was able to create one of the most powerful resources for gathering secret information on the web. The movie portrays the character as a zealot that would post any document irrespective of the considerations about how many persons it would expose and to what effect.
“The Fifth Estate is an intriguing character study and ripped-from-the-headlines assessment of how far and how fast the new-new-new “journalism” has come. Cumberbatch’s Assange is a conniving ego-feeder who does not like sharing credit”, writes O’ Connor.
Supporting cast of the movie seems equally strong that has Daniel Bruhi portraying the character of Daniel Domscheit Berg, Assange’s associate in his moves. Heroine of the movie Vicander plays the girl friend of Assange. One should not forget that Vicander also stole the thunder in previous edition of the Toronto International Film Festival in “Anna Karenina”.
Laura Linney, Anthony Mackie, and Stanley Tucci plays the character of state officials and extend excellent support to lead stars in the movie.
