Page 16 THE VILLADOM TIMES I & II • October 30, 2013 ‘The Fifth Estate’ is patchwork that never hits its mark by Dennis Seuling Movies about real personalities and events run the risk of becoming weak approximations of the real thing. Some- times, they register in cinematic terms as reasonable, even fairly accurate inter- pretations. The recent “Captain Phillips,” for example, falls into the latter category. With the benefit of enthusiastic perfor- mances, that movie was suspenseful and gripping. “The Fifth Estate” is less successful. On the surface, it is the story of Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch), who created WikiLeaks, the online website dedicated to publishing the unedited, unadulterated truth, and an examination of the morality of publishing sensitive documents. The subject matter that direc- tor Bill Condon (“Gods and Monsters,” “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Parts 1 and 2”) tackles should make for an exciting movie. Assange, after all, has been called a terrorist, anarchist, freedom fighter, traitor, and hero, depending on the source. He is a complex figure. The movie should be able to explore why this man is so obsessed with his self-imposed mission of making public potentially embarrassing or life-threatening docu- ments in the interest of truth, no matter the result. Unhappy with the mainstream media of the world, which fail to use their resources to delve, question, and probe, Assange sets up the WikiLeaks website and guarantees whistleblowers anonym- ity if they provide information. The plan Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange in ‘The Fifth Estate.’ works, and much of the information he puts online does reveal abuses and cor- ruption, affecting political leaders, gov- ernments, big business, crooked banks, and so on. WikiLeaks knows no borders. Its reach is worldwide. Cumberbatch has captured Assange’s physical appearance, with his trademark flowing blonde hair, but the script has left the actor adrift in pinning down the man’s character. Assange is an elusive figure who is constantly moving from country to country. There is a half-hearted attempt to reveal some of his early life, but view- ers never get a handle on the man. Daniel Bruhl co-stars as Daniel Berg, an associate of Assange, who initially does lots of legwork to verify informa- tion and track down leads, but ultimately breaks with Assange over a key issue. Berg is the adoring acolyte who becomes disillusioned when he sees his mentor in a disturbing light. The plot point is familiar and even cliché. Bruhl has one basic expression: anxious enthusiasm. He always looks as if he is late catching a train. Structurally, “The Fifth Estate” is a mess. Condon’s attempt to create an immediate, tense style through quick cutting and superimpositions of newspa- per headlines to connect Assange’s work with its results becomes irritating once viewers see that the picture is just piling on one event after another without com- ment or examination. Cinematically, it looks like the work of a first-time film student showing off all the tricks he has learned. This is not Condon’s finest cinematic hour. “The Fifth Estate” never comes to life. It just plods along. His intended cli- mactic scenes revolve around the release of 250,000 diplomatic cables from U.S. embassies to countries around the world. At the very least, these scenes should sparkle and elevate the movie from unin- spired docudrama. That never happens. Instead, Condon moves ahead rapidly until a final few on-screen bits of infor- mation attempt to tie together the loose ends of this flawed production. Rated R, “The Fifth Estate” is strictly TV-movie caliber. The viewer never fully understands Assange’s motivation: Is it entirely selfless, or instead moti- vated by the celebrity he acquires? As a cable movie or better still, a mini-series, WikiLeaks could be explored in greater depth, highlighting in detail its dramatic evolution.