The numbers are in and The Fifth Estate did more than fail at the box office in it's opening weekend. It completely bombed. With names like Benedict Cumberbatch, David Thewlis, Dan Stevens, and Peter Capaldi as well as a lead character as interesting as Julian Assange, this movie looked promising. But in the end, The Fifth Estate makes a couple of mistakes that leads to it's box office failure.
Mistake number one is thinking there are more people that care or are interested in Wikileaks than there actually are. Wikileaks may still be up and running and some of it's major whistleblowers may still be in the news but for the most part, Wikileaks seems to be too far from the present to be important and too close to be something in history worth revisiting just yet. I knew what Wikileaks was but until I heard that Cumberbatch was going to be in this film, I had never heard of the man behind it. The subject matter, unfortunately, simply fails to have the mass appeal it needed to coincide with it's marketing campaign.
Mistake number two is that The Fifth Estate seems confused about who is it's real leading man is. Those who haven't seem the film would be like, duh, it's Cumberbatch as Assange. But after viewing the movie, I can tell you this is not the case. We see quite a bit of Assange but by the end of the film, he is still this distant man of mystery and intrigue that leaves the audience just curious enough to want more. But they never get it. The real leading man is Daniel Bruhl's character Daniel Burg. Most of the world of The Fifth Estate is viewed through Daniel's eyes. I guess this shouldn't be surprising considering the film's source material. But the mistake within this mistake is that if someone did come to watch this movie, they sure didn't come to see it because they care about Burg or his love life, which gets brought up far too much in this film. Burg may have played a role (though how much of one is a point of contention) in Wikileaks' history but Assange is the man who was dreaming up the idea behind Wikileaks for around a decade before he met Daniel Burg. The audience gets to view Assange not as a villain but from the point of view usually given to villains in movies. That is through the eye's of the man who is in either a subtle or blatant way made to be the hero, in this case it is subtly Burg. But without the real life Assange's support, The Fifth Estate could never be directly about him without too much guesswork.
The one thing that can't be said about this film is that any of the actor's performances played to it's failure. Cumberbatch becomes Assange and proves once again that he is more than just a momentary star but a true talent that is here to stay. Daniel Bruhl does a great job but is overshadowed by Cumberbatch's brilliance and Assange's intrigue. The supporting cast of well knowns deliver solid performances as well. If you are interested in seeing this movie at all, I encourage you to do so. In the end, it is still a good movie that should have been great but simply isn't. I give it a 3/5.
Mistake number one is thinking there are more people that care or are interested in Wikileaks than there actually are. Wikileaks may still be up and running and some of it's major whistleblowers may still be in the news but for the most part, Wikileaks seems to be too far from the present to be important and too close to be something in history worth revisiting just yet. I knew what Wikileaks was but until I heard that Cumberbatch was going to be in this film, I had never heard of the man behind it. The subject matter, unfortunately, simply fails to have the mass appeal it needed to coincide with it's marketing campaign.
Mistake number two is that The Fifth Estate seems confused about who is it's real leading man is. Those who haven't seem the film would be like, duh, it's Cumberbatch as Assange. But after viewing the movie, I can tell you this is not the case. We see quite a bit of Assange but by the end of the film, he is still this distant man of mystery and intrigue that leaves the audience just curious enough to want more. But they never get it. The real leading man is Daniel Bruhl's character Daniel Burg. Most of the world of The Fifth Estate is viewed through Daniel's eyes. I guess this shouldn't be surprising considering the film's source material. But the mistake within this mistake is that if someone did come to watch this movie, they sure didn't come to see it because they care about Burg or his love life, which gets brought up far too much in this film. Burg may have played a role (though how much of one is a point of contention) in Wikileaks' history but Assange is the man who was dreaming up the idea behind Wikileaks for around a decade before he met Daniel Burg. The audience gets to view Assange not as a villain but from the point of view usually given to villains in movies. That is through the eye's of the man who is in either a subtle or blatant way made to be the hero, in this case it is subtly Burg. But without the real life Assange's support, The Fifth Estate could never be directly about him without too much guesswork.
The one thing that can't be said about this film is that any of the actor's performances played to it's failure. Cumberbatch becomes Assange and proves once again that he is more than just a momentary star but a true talent that is here to stay. Daniel Bruhl does a great job but is overshadowed by Cumberbatch's brilliance and Assange's intrigue. The supporting cast of well knowns deliver solid performances as well. If you are interested in seeing this movie at all, I encourage you to do so. In the end, it is still a good movie that should have been great but simply isn't. I give it a 3/5.
