{"id":7856,"date":"2019-09-13T12:31:59","date_gmt":"2019-09-13T16:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=7856"},"modified":"2019-09-13T12:32:19","modified_gmt":"2019-09-13T16:32:19","slug":"review-official-secrets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=7856","title":{"rendered":"Review: OFFICIAL SECRETS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Exacting and meaty narrative is fascinating tedium.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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True story based on the book by Marcia and Thomas Mitchell presents an eye-popping dilemma: the conflict between loyalty to country and contractual obligations. In the lead up to the Iraq War, an analyst for the British government named Katherine Gun (Keira Knightley) leaked a highly confidential email, which made its way to the press. In the investigation that followed, Gun was discovered and prosecuted for a violation of the UK\u2019s Official Secrets act.

The film, told primarily from Gun\u2019s point of view, casts her as a patriot, whose goal was not for personal gain. She was not working for a foreign entity and received no financial renumeration for her actions. However, some in the government believed that she leaked the email in order to build her celebrity. And, if the facts are consistent with the story told in this movie, Gun\u2019s motivations were genuine and sincere.

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Matthew Goode and others make up a superb supporting cast.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A frightening, real-world thriller, director Gavin Hood, who last gave us 2015\u2019s excellent \u201cEye in the Sky,\u201d has a good feel for the material. The direction is tight and Hood\u2019s assembled a veritable \u201cwho\u2019s who\u201d of British acting talent led by a completely devoted Knightley as Gun and anchored by a suitably buttoned up Ralph Fiennes, as the attorney who defends her. It\u2019s a talky affair, but one that is really informative and revealing, if, also, tedious.

A few supporting players melt into their characters in this ensemble. Matthew Goode is positively unrecognizable as a journalist, who works with Matt Smith and others. Their editor is played by \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d regular Conleth Hill, and Rhys Ifans chews scenery as an unhinged, crusty investigative reporter.

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Knightley is thoroughly devoted to her role here.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The depth of the cast is impressive and keeps things humming along. The movie pulls together elements of other films, like \u201cThe Post\u201d and proper legal thrillers. The story, which played out in the media years ago, might have a little hair on it, but it\u2019s still engrossing and important. Kudos to Knightley for continuing to take on complex roles. Those who dislike her and are sniffy about her abilities are just wrong.

In all the talk about various legal defenses and reasoning, one thing bothered me: isn\u2019t there a legal way to expose possible wrong-doing by your government? In this country, we have whistleblower laws that provide a mechanism. However, the question would always be whether that system provides sufficient protection and ensures that the right thing will be done. National security as a justification for suppressing speech has its limits.

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Real world thriller raises important questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[1766,979,1767,1768,91],"class_list":["post-7856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-gavin-hood","tag-keira-knightley","tag-legal-thriller","tag-spy","tag-thriller","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7856"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7861,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7856\/revisions\/7861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}