By Renee’ Collins
Rating: 3 (Out of 5 Reels)
I vividly remember watching news stories about Julian Assange plans to publish thousands of highly confidential communications on his website called WikiLeaks for the world to see because they were calling him a terrorist. This film is a dramatic thriller based on real events that reveal the quest to expose the deceptions and corruptions of power that turned an Internet upstart into the 21st century’s most fiercely debated organization (IMDB).
Curiosity brought me into this film because I wanted to learn more about how this drama has played out over the years. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe everything I see and hear in a film but sometimes the viewer actually learns more about a situation. Benedict Cumberbatch is a wonderful actor and I heard he asked to talk directly to Assange in order to portray him in the most realistic way. Sadly, he was turned down because Assange thought the film would not be an accurate depiction of what actually happened; imagine that.
The visual effects in this film did catch my eye because there are only so many ways to creatively show type across a screen and with all of the typing going on in this film that becomes a feat in itself. Technically the film is very well made but I found it was about half an hour too long. Overall the acting is adequately done but I found Cumberbatch’ portrayal of Assange a bit flat which is not entirely his fault because the writing is not that great. This film does explore a very important and difficult issue in society today which is how much transparency is too much and at what expense. I did enjoy this film but found it flat and a bit too long and I wouldn’t pay full price to see it.