FILM REVIEW: Kiera Knightly shines in thrilling but heavy-handed political procedural "Official Secrets"
From a glance, the topic of politics provides the ultimate arena for the confrontation of ideologies. Part of what defines our personal identity is our opinions, and the beliefs we champion and support. While conflicts in literature and cinema manifest as a battle of the forces of good and evil, the world of politics is an intriguing nexus where answers can be morally ambiguous, and the distinction between right and wrong is often unclear. Part of the power of art it can challenge our beliefs and existing assumptions about our lives, and a topic like political corruption is particularly compelling at forcing us to reflect on the integrity of our beliefs.
What makes Official Secrets compelling, is how it focuses on this ideological turmoil through the films’ supporting characters, and how their beliefs are called into question as a result of the fallout from the protagonist’s actions. After reading an email instructing employees to look for information with the intention of blackmailing UN diplomats to rig a vote regarding the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Katharine Gun (Kiera Knightley), who works for a British intelligence agency, decides to leak the email anonymously to the press. When the email is published by The Observer journalist Martin Bright (Matt Smith), her entire department is placed under heavy investigation. Fearing for the well-being of her co-workers, she confesses to leaking the information, and is set to be charged for violation of the Official Secrets Act.
As the fallout unfolds, the way the main characters are forced to wrestle with their existing long-held beliefs of right and wrong is executed with a surprising blend of thrilling, slow-burning tension and existential dread. Katharine struggles to reconcile with the revelation that her moral obligation of protecting her country is in conflict with the intentions of her government; Martin is compelled to pursue the anti-war story, despite the Observer’s pro-war stance; Katharine’s defense lawyer Ben Emmerson (Ralph Fiennes), in admiration of the courage and moral integrity of his defendant’s actions, strives to prove her intentions were just. The power of Official Secrets, is how it uses this political backdrop to tell a story about the importance of exploring and questioning the information around us, and that it is natural for our opinions to change, sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worst.
Unfortunately, the paint-by-numbers screenplay and lacklustre cinematography often worked to hinder the film’s thematically rich narrative, and at times threaten to devolve an otherwise evocative thriller into a melodramatic BBC soap opera. Our characters, while somewhat relatable, become moralistic caricatures, serving no more than preachers of the film’s themes. That said, Official Secrets is not the first based-on-a-true-story film that falls prey to this tendency to rely on the audience’s understanding that these are depictions of real-life people, as a storytelling shortcut that provides the film with an excuse to not further-develop its characters beyond mouth-pieces for its ideas. And for the most part, this works.
Official Secrets, while melodramatic and heavy-handed in execution, is a thrilling political procedural with good intentions, carried by a powerful and subtle performance by Kiera Knightley.
