4.5 stars. Rated R, for profanity
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 9.13.19
This fact-based drama could not be better timed.
More than ever, we must be reminded of the imperative necessity of speaking truth and integrity to power.
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| Once exposed and arrested, Katharine Gun (Keira Knightley) is allowed a brief visit from her husband, Yasar (Adam Bakri). In a touching act that feels genuine, he brings her a thick jacket, because he knows the jail cell will be cold. |
Along with the value of the Fourth Estate, and its role in exposing the filthy secrets of power-mongers who believe they can get away with anything.
And of the foolishness of reflexively relying on a crutch such as Spell check.
Director Gavin Hood makes smart, thoughtful films that don’t get near enough attention in the mainstream market. Folks who stumbled across 2015’s Eye in the Sky were mesmerized by its intriguing depiction of a wartime conundrum — do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of a few? — as it related to the potential civilian fatalities that would result from a drone strike targeting a suicide bomber.
Hood’s film had the intensity of an intimate stage drama, and it was comforting (if naïve) to imagine that the civilian/military chain of command actually might ponder such consequences. At the end of the day, though, Eye in the Sky — however provocative — remains a mere philosophical exercise, because it’s fictitious.
That’s not the case with Official Secrets.
Hood’s newest film isn’t merely a depiction of actual events; it illuminates an impressively brave act that should be a humiliating footnote in this country’s reckless 2003 invasion of Iraq. Instead, the incident is all but unknown on this side of the pond … which, frankly, is shameful.
It made far more noise in England, where — to this day — people debate whether Katharine Gun is an honorable patriot on par with our own Daniel Ellsberg … or a traitor to her country.
That should be enough to get you into a movie theater. Better still, Hood and his co-scripters — Gregory and Sara Bernstein, adapting Marcia and Thomas Mitchell’s nonfiction book, The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War — have crafted their film with the clever precision of a multi-act suspense thriller.
Somewhere toward the middle, you’ll begin to wonder: How the hell could we not have known about this?
Add a terrific ensemble cast of top-notch British actors, and you couldn’t ask for more.
Keira Knightley’s portrayal of Gun — the nuance depicted, during so many key moments of this astonishing saga — is the performance of an already impressive career. We cannot take our eyes off her.
Following a brief, attention-getting prologue, the film backs up to early 2003, with Katharine at home, on what feels like a typical day alongside husband Yasar (Adam Bakri). He’d rather watch sports on the telly, while she fulminates over news clips depicting the smug manner in which Prime Minister Tony Blair blandly parrots American President George W. Bush’s reasons for joining a potential war against Iraq.
Katharine isn’t an ordinary nine-to-fiver; she works for the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), a branch of British intelligence, where she translates Mandarin Chinese into English. In this capacity, she — and everyone else in her department — receives an emailed appeal for assistance, from an upper-echelon official in the U.S National Security Agency.
In black-ops jargon, the NSA memo requests British assistance in illegally eavesdropping on the United Nations offices of six countries — Angola, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea and Pakistan — regarded as UN Security Council “swing nations” that could determine the fate of the vote to invade Iraq. The goal: to obtain intel (read: embarrassing dirt) that’ll help U.S. operatives persuade (read: blackmail) said countries into supporting the American position.
Katharine, immediately aware that this is heinously wrong on so many levels, is shocked beyond words. But not beyond deed; unable to hold her conscience at bay, she makes a hard copy of the memo, intending to leak it to the British press.
But that’s not an easy thing to do, and not merely because she wishes to avoid exposure. Knightley ensures that we perceive Katharine as intelligent and impassioned, and yet still deeply conflicted; she’s well aware that her behavior is treasonous. On top of which, her husband Yasar is Muslim; even though he’s no fan of Saddam Hussein, Yasar is too personally familiar with the consequences of espionage, and of government revenge.
Nor can Katharine lie to herself. Much as she loathes the very notion of war, as a confirmed pacifist, she’s annoyed more by the impertinent arrogance of American intelligence operatives who believe they can cajole Britain into breaking its own laws.
Katharine’s dilemma — and what she ultimately does — becomes the first act of this increasingly fascinating (and dismaying) drama. Hood then shifts abruptly to the newsroom of The Observer, where three reporters argue with their editor-in-chief (Conleth Hall) over the paper’s decision to come out in favor of the planned war.
The feistiest is Ed Vulliamy, played with profanity-laced passion by Rhys Ifans, better known for comedic roles; even so, he’s quite credible as a hard-charging war correspondent who suffers timid fools not at all, let alone gladly. His position is supported — more politely, but no less insistently — by fellow journalists Martin Bright (Matt Smith) and Peter Beaumont (Matthew Goode).
The dynamic shifts a few days later, when a copy of the damning GCHQ email lands in Martin’s hands, in a scene right out of the Deep Throat revelations in All the President’s Men.
Indeed, the subsequent second act has the riveting intensity of that 1976 classic, along with 2015’s Spotlight, 2017’s The Post and so many other great journalism/newsroom dramas. The plot beats are no less enthralling for their familiarity: Identify the source. Authenticate, authenticate, authenticate. Get corroboration. Find somebody in British Intelligence who, even if s/he won’t confirm, won’t deny.
Smith projects a captivating blend of political savvy and captivating guile, as he goes about this increasingly insidious treasure hunt. And all the while, the clock is ticking, as the impending UN vote approaches. And all the while, British news reports are filled with images of President Bush and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, exhorting the “civilized” nations to join their impending war.
One could accuse Hood and his scripters of laying it on a bit thick, but really; their approach isn’t unreasonable, given the revelations that continue to emerge.
Ralph Fiennes dominates the third act, as human rights and public international law barrister Ben Emmerson; he leaps into the fray in the aftermath of The Observer’s eventual decision to publish. Fiennes is supported by John Heffernan and Indira Varma, as fellow lawyers James Welch and Shami Chakrabarti. (Varma likely will be recognized from her duplicitous role in HBO’s Game of Thrones.)
Fiennes shines as the soft-spoken Emmerson, particularly during his scenes with Knightley; she, in turn, persuasively depicts Katharine’s quiet terror, as she contemplates the implications of what she has set in motion.
That’s the best part of Hood’s film. Our rising indignation at the awful machinations of government overreach notwithstanding, we’re most captivated by the many superbly constructed character dynamics: from Smith’s wheedling smile, and Goode’s careful verbal serves to his “tennis partner,” while both reporters try to pry information from their sources; to the deep love and rapidly rising concern that Katharine and Yasar have for each other — conveyed so well by Knightley and Bakri — when events spiral beyond their control.
Even the smallest, most fleeting of supporting roles are deftly cast and sublimely portrayed.
Our awareness that these are all real people — and that Hood and his scripters have remained as faithful as possible to historical authenticity — makes everything that much more personal.
Official Secrets is a well-mounted slice of advocacy cinema; it’s also a gripping drama, a superlative character study and — yes — even an enthralling thriller.
Quite an impressive package.
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