Official Secrets

Official Secrets-360P

Official Secrets-720P

Official Secrets-480P

This film start with a woman "Katharine" having trial at court, and flashback of her life with her husband and her working life scene! As turnout, this film is about Katharine having trial at court, because she leaking government secret document! Entire film full of boring conversation and not intense! The only intensity of the film is the profanity! At the end, the prosecutor refuse to having trial with Katharine! Katharine won the trial and release from the court! Really ridiculous and predictable! That's it! Wasting time to watch this boring film!

I was talked into going to see this and had my doubts as it seemed to be a variation on the Judi Dench film, Red Joan, which came out last year. However, despite being a slow burn of a film, it does a very good job with the slightly staid script. The morality angle is very evenly addressed and the politics of the invasion of Iraq are laid bare. We all know now how the government of Tony Blair were sucked in to a war that had resolved very little (and may have made things worse) but to be in the know at the time and to stand up and be counted took great personal courage. And this conflict of interests is very well handled to its satisfactory resolution. I must confess that Keira Knightley is not an actress I've ever warmed to but she does a decent job in the lead role. However the standout supporting actor to me is Matt Smith who's energy and dynamism as the journalist who doggedly pursues the story he is tipped off about really keeps the film ticking along. Definitely worth a watch and hopefully it may make you question the honesty of governments in the future.

This film is so biased that it feels like propaganda. The bad guys are the Americans, police officers, Tony Blair, the British. The good guys; left leaning human rights lawyers, liberal politicians, any one who opposes the British government. It cleverly sidesteps the fact that it was a Labour Party (socialist) led government that took Great Britain to war. Having said that this film has a fast pace to it and the incredible bias had me laughing from start to finish.

It belongs in the same category as SPOTLIGHT and ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN - a remarkable true story of how a British government employee risked everything to reveal classified information that exposed Tony Blair's collusion with President Bush to go to war against Iraq without any evidence to back up their claim that S. Hussein had those weapons of mass destruction. A great deal of good writing, acting and directorial skills have turned this "Sixty Minutes" sort of material into a very compelling and exciting thriller. It resonates with so much that is going on at this very minute in current U.S.A. crisis that every politically concerned movie-goer should track this down ASAP. A wonderful movie, one of the three best of this year so far.

Why is the claim that Katherine Gun discovered a plot to "blackmail" still here in synopsis when anyone who knows the case and has seen the now public memo knows it wasn't about blackmail but about normal pressure countries place on each other ALL THE TIME. The UK and Germans have been caught "monitoring" US diplomatic communications. is that really some kind of major international crime? These same types memo types, have been found concerning the UK pressuring the US to get involved in WWII, the French and English attempting to get Eisenhower administration on their side in Suez crisis etc etc. Really a certain segment of Brits are professional pearl clutchers and "shocked" at everything. Genocidairre, and banned chemical weapons maker and user Saddam is gone. So are his on again off again on again WMD programs. NO ONE denies he was not blocking inspections. Good!

It's sometimes difficult for films that deal with heavy dialogue covering subjects that are not always the easiest to translate on screen to create thrilling 100 minutes or so. Official Secrets does it well, bolstered by yet another great (period piece) performance from Keira Knightley. This film may not be revered as much as All the President's Men or Spotlight but it's up there for me. Separating itself by showing the true costs of being a whistleblower emotionally and physically while still succeeding in using a similar formula structurally. I was nothing short of enthralled with Official Secrets. 8.8/10

Katherine Gun leaked top secret information to the press. The British government brought charges then dropped the case at the last minute when it realized that complying with the rules of evidence would require it to expose sensitive information. That's it. The End. Fini. As noble as Gun's motives were, there's little story here. Padding things out to feature film length require lots of stupifying dialog and close-ups of Kiera Knightly. More filler is provided by a deranged press veteran and an arrogant prosecutor. There is the stereotypical diligent reporter and the tenacious barrister. The courtroom scene at the end of the film is beyond ridiculous. Don't waste your money.