TL;DR – A powerful exploration of what happens when all the institutions that are meant to protect us from abuse of power fail
Score – 4 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Review –
There are films that are perfectly timed in their release, sometimes it is the
world shifting around you, sometimes you get lucky and just so happen to be shining
a light on something that is about to come to the foreground, and sometimes it
is always good to be reminded of speaking truth to power. Well, today we get a
film that does all three of those as it explores the absolute mess that was the
justifications for the Iraq War. A mess that America, UK, Australia, and others
found themselves in through no one’s fault but their own.
So to set the scene, in 2003 the world was on the cusp of war as America in the
wake of September 11 has set its sights on a new foe Iraq. Not happy to just
sit and wait for the weapon inspectors to do their jobs, they were placing enormous
pressure on the United Nations Security Council to pass a resolution allowing
the war. As this is happening, Katharine Gun (Keira Knightley) was working in
the UK’s signal intelligence agency GCHQ as a translator, when she receives a
memo from her superiors asking them to support NSA efforts to pressure UNSC
diplomates to vote for the war. As this goes against her job and is quite
possibly illegal, she takes a copy of the memo and gives it to a trusted friend
to see if it is as bad as she thought it was, and well it was.

This
was a bit of a surreal film for me because it was charting one of those
defining moments when I was growing up. The War in Iraq happened as I was studying
International Relations and as such I can remember sitting down and watching
those speeches from Tony Blair, George W. Bush, and Colin Powell as they were
happening in real-time. So to watch it all play out again knowing that there
was nothing that could have stopped this policy train wreck was actually hard
to watch at times. Also, nothing can rip you back into the past like seeing a
zip drive in play.
Its exploration of institutions and their failure is a case study in the world
today and a telling testament to the damage secrecy laws can do to silence lawful
decent. Intelligence agencies were tasked to focus on politically convenient
targets, media companies that had already chosen an editorial line rather than
support the investigative work of their journalists, cherry-picking raw
intelligence to fit your narrative rather than the other way around. I mean if
you turn on the news for five minutes you will see some of that happening in
the world around us today.

This
is a lot to take in and the film does not shy away from the importance and
weight of this issue and the effect it had on Katherine. However, it does do a
really good job of managing that so it does not become overwhelming. There are
moments in the film that are actually quite hilarious, well funny in a sort of
sad way. A lot of this comes from the scenes in and around The Observer, as it tries to authentic the memo. These are need
breaks in the flow of the film, but also shine a light in how the media can
prioritise access over reporting.
None of this film would have worked nearly as well as it did without the cast
that was up for the challenge. It is here where I want to take a moment to give
Keira Knightley the full credit she is due. This is a masterclass performance
in staying strong when everything is trying to tear you down. Internal conflict
is something that is easy to describe in books but hard to emote on the screen
sans monologue. But we see that indecision, that conflict, in every small
emotion, every crumpled piece of paper, and every step, it is an incredibly
powerful performance. She is also joined by a fantastic supporting cast with Matt
Smith, Matthew Goode, Rhys Ifans, Conleth Hill and Ralph Fiennes all giving
memorable performances.

In the end, do we recommend Official Secrets? Yes, absolutely. It is an incredibly timely story, with powerful performances, and it forces you to take notice of the institutions that are meant to be there to protect you. It is a story that could not be more relevant for today, even more so given it is a true story.
By Brian MacNamara: You can follow
Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV,
he’ll be talking about International Relations,
or the Solar System.
Have you watched Official Secrets?, let us know what you thought in the
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our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy
day.
Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and
production companies of Official Secrets
Directed by – Gavin Hood
Screenplay by – Gregory Bernstein,
Sara Bernstein & Gavin Hood
Based on – The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War by Marcia & Thomas Mitchell
Music by – Paul Hepker & Mark
Kilian
Cinematography by – Florian
Hoffmeister
Edited by – Megan Gill
Production/Distribution Companies – Clear Pictures Entertainment, Raindog Films, The Gordon Company, Ingenious
Media, Screen Yorkshire, Entertainment One & Universal
Starring – Keira Knightley, Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, Rhys
Ifans, Adam Bakri, Indira Varma, Ralph Fiennes, Conleth Hill, Tamsin Greig,
Hattie Morahan, Ray Panthaki, Angus Wright, Chris Larkin, Monica Dolan, Jack
Farthing, Clive Francis, John Heffernan, Kenneth Cranham, Darrell D’Silva,
Janie Dee, MyAnna Buring, Niccy Lin, Chris Reilly, Shaun Dooley, Peter
Guinness, Hanako Footman & Jeremy Northam
Rating – Australia: MA15+;
Canada: 14A; Germany: 6; New Zealand: na; United Kingdom: 15; United States: R
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