High-minded and sturdy, if never as galvanizing as it should be, Gavin Hood’s whistleblower drama “Official Secrets” follows a string of similarly themed, recent-history docudramas (“The Post,” “Spotlight”) in trying to frame a noble fight as worth waging no matter the repercussions.
And in the real-life case of British intelligence analyst Katharine Gun, played with trademark poise and fierce smarts by Keira Knightley, a consequential impulse to go rogue and do right by millions of citizens in England and Iraq in the pre-invasion buildup put her squarely in the crosshairs of her country’s need to punish those willing to expose the darker workings in the drumbeat to war.
If you don’t know anything about Gun’s actions and subsequent ordeal — highly likely since war happened anyway, and regrettably so since this incident should have helped prevent it — “Official Secrets,” (written by Hood and Sara and Gregory Bernstein, based on a book about Gun’s experience) serves as an efficiently told primer. It’s a historical sidebar of ordinary bravery (Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg called Gun’s leak “the most courageous” he’d ever seen) and government hardball.
It’s 2003, and Gun is by day a signals intelligence analyst at Britain’s GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters). By night, alongside her Kurdish immigrant husband Yasar (Adam Bakri), she’s yelling at the television as American and British leaders trot out faulty justifications for going to war against Saddam Hussein. (In a line sure to resonate in our Orwellian political climate, she blurts out into the ether at Tony Blair, “You don’t get to make up your own facts.”)
So when a classified NSA memo drops into her inbox at work, directing UK intelligence to help the Americans root out compromising material on UN Security Council nations in order to blackmail them into voting on a resolution to go to war, Gun believes the only proper thing to do is alert a calculatedly misled public.
Simultaneously, Hood (“Eye in the Sky”) takes us into the newsroom at the establishment-friendly UK paper The Observer, where stubborn editor Roger Alton (Conleth Hill, “Game of Thrones”) clashes with idealistic political reporter Martin Bright (Matt Smith), war correspondent Peter Beaumont (Matthew Goode) and Washington-based firebrand Ed Vulliamy (Rhys Ifans) over the broadsheet’s coverage of Blair’s coziness with Bush. The discussions intensify when Bright gets his hands on the NSA directive: diligent reporting confirms its validity, but a crafty smear campaign after the story’s publication (led by the Drudge Report, unsurprisingly) serves to dampen its impact in the UK and to ensure its abandonment by a normally piggyback-mad American news media.
At this point Hood effectively drops the media angle to focus on the consequences for Gun, who calmly confesses to leaking the memo and sees her life upended by law enforcement threats, the possible deportation of her husband, and prosecution under Britain’s Official Secrets Act. The onslaught sends her to a civil liberties/human rights law firm, where lawyer Ben Emmerson (Ralph Fiennes) takes her case.
In its outrage-driven bones, “Official Secrets” wants to be all things to all political thriller aficionados: journalism saga, fight-the-system stirrer, paranoid nail-biter and courtroom drama. To that end, cinematographer Florian Hoffmeister (“A Quiet Passion”) gives us suitably shadow-filled London locations, and Hood leans when he can on the score by frequent collaborators Paul Hepker and Mark Kilian.
But where Hood’s “All the President’s Men” ambitions feel forced — there’s even a shadowy meet-up in a parking garage — the second-half machinations pertaining to Gun’s legal peril and eventual defense are duly fascinating, all the way up to what transpires at the Old Bailey at the end. Unless you’re familiar with Gun’s story, how it all played out may surprise even the most genre-hardened experts in climactic trial scenes.
Knightley wears the cloak of flinty heroism around increasing vulnerability well, even if the clockwork screenplay and Hood’s on-the-nose sense of dramatic power often telegraphs a scene’s emotions well before the actors have a chance to bring it to life. The half of the cast playing journalists have their ups and downs — Hill and Goode have more ingrained gravitas than Smith and the overblown Ifans — but once Fiennes enters the picture, his coiled, watchful presence ensures a compelling ride to the conclusion. Even in two ham-fistedly charged scenes on a beach with a chummy prosecutor neighbor played by Jeremy Northam, Fiennes brings a quietly seething, righteous strength.
You’ll certainly know who Katharine Gun is by the end of “Official Secrets,” and the movie makes abundantly clear what the stakes were for her — and will likely always be for lowly informers — going up against a state with something to hide. But when your two-hour history lesson ends, you’re still left realizing that Gun’s efforts didn’t alter the larger history lesson of a bloody, bad war that was still waged without Security Council authorization. That has its effect on “Official Secrets,” too, leaving a capably rendered, urgently argued portrait in courage that never quite rises above curious-footnote status.
97 Sundance Portraits From TheWrap at Acura Studios With Keira Knightley, Robert Pattinson and More (Photos)
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Actress Chloë Sevigny, "Lizzie"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
"Lizzie" writer Bryce Kass, actor Denis O'Hare, director Craig William Macneill and actress Chloë Sevigny
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
"Believer" director Don Argott with subjects Tyler Glenn and Dan Reynolds
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
"What They Had" stars Taissa Farmiga, Michael Shannon, writer-director Elizabeth Chomko, Blythe Danner and Hilary Swank
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Actor Michael Shannon, "What They Had"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Meg McGarry, Flynn McGarry, Cameron Yates and Laura Coxson, "Chef Flynn"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Flynn McGarry, "Chef Flynn"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Director Jesse Peretz, "Juliet, Naked"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Actor Chris-O'Dowd, "Juliet, Naked"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Director Eugene Jarecki, "The King"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
"An Evening With Beverly Luff Lin" director Jim Hosking with stars Aubrey Plaza, Matt Berry, Craig Robinson, and Jemaine Clement
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
"Private Life" stars Kayli Carter and Kathryn Hahn with writer-director Tamara Jenkins
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Actress Kayli Carter, "Private Life"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
"Private Life" producer, Ali Abouomar
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
"Eighth Grade" writer-director Bo Burnham and star Elsie Fisher
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Actress Kiersey Clemons, "Hearts Beat Loud"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
"Arizona" director Jonathan Watson with stars Luke Wilson, Elizabeth Gillies, Danny McBride, Lolli Sorenson, Kaitlin Olsen and Rosemarie Dewitt
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Actress Elizabeth Gillies, "Arizona"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
"Dead Pigs" director Cathy Yan with stars Li Meng, Zazie Beetz and David Rhysdahl
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Director Cathy Yan, "Dead Pigs"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Actress Zazie Beetz, "Dead Pigs"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Writer-actor Rafael Casal, director Carlos López Estrada, writer-actor Daveed Diggs, actors Janina Gavankar, Justin Chu Cory and Jasmine Cephas Jones, "Blindspotting"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Jason Ritter, "The Tale"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Actor Common, "The Tale"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Isabella Amara, "The Tale"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Writer-director-star Carlson Young, "The Blazing World"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Robert Pattinson and Mia Wasikowska, "Damsel"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Actor Robert Pattinson, "Damsel"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Actress Mia Wasikowska, "Damsel"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Director Silas Howard, "A Kid Like Jake"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Jim Parsons, "A Kid Like Jake"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Actress Priyanka Chopra, "A Kid Like Jake"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Claire Danes, "A Kid Like Jake"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Actress Octavia Spencer, "A Kid Like Jake"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Actors Jeffrey Wright, Kelvin Harrison Jr., and director Anthony Mandler, "Monster"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Dominic West and Kiera Knightly, "Colette"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Actress Kiera Knightly, "Colette"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Actor John Cho, "Search"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
"The Kindergarten Teacher" director, Sara Colangelo and actress, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
"The Kindergarten Teacher" actress, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
"The Kindergarten Teacher" actress, Anna Baryshnikov
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Musician Aloe Blacc, "America's Musical Journey"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Director Jessica Sanders, "End of the Line"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Forest Whitaker, "Burden"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Garrett Hedlund, "Burden"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Director Talal Derki, "Of Fathers and Sons"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Director, Boots Riley, "Sorry to Bother You"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Lakeith Stanfield, "Sorry to Bother You"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Armie Hammer, "Sorry to Bother You"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Actor Jason Segel, "Come Sunday"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Actress Condola Rashad, "Come Sunday"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Director Stephen Maing, "Crime and Punishment"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
The young women of the "Skate Kitchen" skate collective, with director Crystal Moselle and co-star Jaden Smith, "Skate Kitchen"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Jaden Smith, "Skate Kitchen"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Actor Charlie Sexton, director Ethan Hawke, actress Alia Shawkat, actor Josh Hamilton, and acorr Ben Dickey, "Blaze"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Director Ethan Hawke, “Blaze"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Actress Alia Shawkat, “Blaze"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Actor Ben Dickey, “Blaze"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Charlie Sexton, “Blaze"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
"The Devil You Know" director Stephanie Soechtig and her four subjects
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Director Stephanie Soechtig, "The Devil You Know"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Actress Hari Nef, writer-director Sam Levinson and actors Colman Domingo and Bill Skårsgard, "Assassination Nation"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Bill Skårsgard, "Assassination Nation"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Writer-director Sam Levinson, "Assassination Nation"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Actor Coleman Damingo, "Assassination Nation"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Actress Helena Howard, "Madeline's Madeline"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Chris McGurk, CEO of Cinedigm
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Director David Wain, actors Domhnall Gleeson, Tom Lennon, and Emmy Rossum, "A Futile and Stupid Gesture"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Emmy Rossum, "A Futile and Stupid Gesture"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Domhnall Gleeson, "A Futile and Stupid Gesture"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Director Brad Anderson, "Beirut"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Raul Castillo, Jeremiah Zagar, Sheila Vand, and Justin Torres, "We the Animals"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios
Author Justin Torres, "We the Animals"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Actress Sheila Vand, "We the Animals"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Actor Raul Castillo, "We the Animals"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Actors Maia Mitchell and Cami Marrone with writer-director Augustine Frizzell, “Never Goin’ Back”
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Cami Morrone, “Never Goin’ Back”
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Actress Augustine Frizzell, "Never Goin' Back"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Actress Maia Mitchell, "Never Goin' Back"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Director Jack Henry Robbins and producer Tim Robbins, "Painting With Joan"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Co-writer and star Franchesca Ramsey, "Franchesca"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Producer Trey Ellis, "King in the Wilderness"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Actors Valter Skarsgard, Lucian Charles Collier, Sky Ferreira, Jack Kilmer, director Jonas Akerlund, Wilson Gonzalez, and Rory Culkin, "Lords of Chaos"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Actor Valter Skarsgard, "Lords of Chaos"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Rory Culkin, "Lords of Chaos"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
"Lords of Chaos" star Wilson Gonzalez
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Director and co-writer Jonas Akerlund, "Lords of Chaos"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Jack Kilmer, "Lords of Chaos"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Joan Jett, "Bad Reputation"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Director and co-writer Daryl Wein, "White Rabbit"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Actor Graham Verchere, actor Rich Sommer, co-directors Francois Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell, writers Matt Leslie and Stephen J. Smith, actress Tiera Skovbye, and actor Caleb Emery, "Summer of '84"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Caleb Emery, "Summer of '84"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Actress Tiera Skovbye, "Summer of '84"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Actor Luis Gerardo Mendez, "Time Share"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Actor Matthew Lillard, "Halfway There"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
Sarah Shahi, "Halfway There"
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studio
1 of 97
Sundance 2018: Hilary Swank, Forest Whitaker and Armie Hammer among the stars shot by photographer Irvin Rivera in Park City
Photographed by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap at the Acura Studios