The Fifth Estate

I’m not sure how to feel about this movie. The themes about truth and journalism are strong, but the execution is scatterbrained. Filmmakers try to use visual metaphors to tell the story. Rows of desks with computers sit on a sandy beach, and this is symbolic for some reason. Of course there are the old clichés, too. Computer screens reflecting in the faces of their users. Dollies circle around desks mid-hack. Anything to make a movie about computers more interesting. But they didn’t really need the gimmicks. The story of Wikileaks and the sudden impact on the world is enough of a story. So I didn’t hate it, but I’m not endorsing it either.