There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Steve Golin and Bill Condon managed to produce and direct Propaganda crap.

The movie does injustice to the actual people whom the story is based upon by showing them in the negative light. The movie is based on books that have been severely discredited due to the inaccuracies and it only builds on that. The best part of the movie was Benedict Cumberbatch's brilliant acting and only that made it worthy of enjoying the movie. Even the other actors Daniel Brühl, David Thewlis and Alicia Vikander have acted very well to make it watch-worthy. Towards the end of the movie, (SPOILER ALERT) the concept of whistle-blowing is shown in a negative light as if Julian had committed a crime and endangered people by exposing the truth. These people clearly deserved for their past actions and I hope future movies would try to portray truths more better than expressing their own deviation of it.

... which renders it's use as a "based on real life events" movie well, useless. Only redeeming quality is Cumberbatch's exquisite performance. Main problem I have with it is that the script seems to confuse the personas of Assange and Berg. The real life Berg is a mediocre person with a mediocre skill set and a mediocre personality who desires to mount to more than his capabilities will allow thus becomes disgruntled and disillusioned with Wikileaks and Assange once he realizes that neither the organization nor its founder will yield their ideals to provide him with this opportunity.One quite funny example of this is when the movie attempts to twist his blatant exaggeration of his role and self publicizing in the Wired interview as evidence of Assange's alleged distrust of people around him. As a result, in a fit of jealous rage he destroys/steals valuable leaks that whistle-blowers risked their lives to provide to the organization, tries to build his own *leaks where he would be in charge, blackmails Wikileaks with the fate of these stolen leaks and tries to financially benefit from his "defector" status by publishing third rate books.If any of you reading this review require hand holding to be made aware of the sheer hypocrisy of creating a website for leaks while simultaneously destroying/stealing leaks provided to another, I pity you. There is a story to be told here about a man, his ego and his thirst for celebrity, importance and power who ends up making a giant mess. That man, however isn't Assange.

Triggering our age of high- end secrecy, massive news leaks and revelations of classified information, Wikileaks created a massive change in the world. Now with the release of the thriller based on real events, "THE FIFTH ESTATE" reveals the positive and negative sides of the entire game that got the state of Internet upside down. Right from the leaks of the illegal activities conducted by the Swiss Bank, Julius Baer to the biggest leak of the US department cables, this movie kept me engaged throughout till the end. This was one movie that garnered mixed reactions, both positive and negative; including one from the Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange himself."Our view is that a $US40 million advertising budget promoting WikiLeaks around the world, and actors like Cumberbatch speaking about it, is a good thing for the popularization of WikiLeaks"—WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, on the filmPersonally I liked the movie as it provided me more of an in-depth knowledge about WikiLeaks which I had no idea about. Besides the informative part, actors like Cumberbatch (essaying Julian Assange) did an outstanding job and amazed me with his skills.