The Fifth Estate 2013

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: This is the film equivalent of celebrity journalism. Which, some would say, is no journalism at all. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: A feeble, reactionary drama. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Feverishly edgy and exciting. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: "The Fifth Estate" tries to be a cross between "The Social Network" and "Zero Dark Thirty." Only it's more like "The Sociopath Network" meets "Zero Dumb Thirty." Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Timely but sluggish and confusing, The Fifth Estate will be a hard sell. Corruption in cyberspace should be a helluva lot more entertaining than this. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Exhausting in a new way, the movie is a data dump devoid of drama. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: The movie feels both too soon and too late; an often skillful assemblage of bits and pieces, telling a story we already know and, ultimately, letting it fade away without an ending. Read more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: Both the kindest and most damning thing you can say about "The Fifth Estate" is that it primarily hobbles itself by trying to cram in more context-needy material than any single drama should have to bear. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, AV Club: Slick and superficially entertaining, doesn't have much news to impart. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Cumberbatch is great. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Condon tries to dramatize the story's ideas but instead turns them into simplistic Power Point bullets that just lie there. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: A polished and engrossing Hollywood thriller, smartly scripted by West Wing veteran Josh Singer. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: We're snowed by a great deal of intersecting and crisscrossing information in "The Fifth Estate," and Singer's script lacks organizational skills. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Condon and his screenwriter Josh Singer don't quite know what to make of this duo, perhaps because the men didn't quite know what to make of each other, either. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: The first narrative film portrait of the white-blond cyber bad boy feels undercooked and overwrought, haphazardly written and overdirected. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Director Bill Condon delivers an intelligent, dynamic, character-centered drama. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: It may be a bit chilly, but "The Fifth Estate" is good, scary information well-processed. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: The Fifth Estate is also as current as a news feed, filling in the disputed facts about Assange's life beyond the headlines and chronicling the revolution that has upended the media landscape in the last decade. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, Film.com: For a film that reminds use over and over that this is a whole new world, this movie feels awfully familiar. Read more

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: Benedict Cumberbatch's Julian Assange is the highlight of a sometimes ordinary-feeling film. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: [It] sounds somewhat schematic, [but] it plays better than that because the two actors bring quite a bit to their roles, and because the script has worked hard to make the issues feel real and relevant. Read more

Tony Hicks, San Jose Mercury News: "The Fifth Estate" accomplishes its intent: offering some insight into an important milestone in history and prompting viewers to question and debate what they have just witnessed. Unfortunately, it takes too long to get there. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: The Fifth Estate takes on the important 21st century question of information flow vs. privacy rights and fumbles it into a middling mishmash of techno thriller and future-of-journalism lecture. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: And the award for Best Actor in a Disappointing Movie goes to... Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange in "The Fifth Estate." Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: As nervy and as excitable as the trade that it depicts. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: It's not Wiki; it's just weak. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: An entertaining if inevitably unreliable current events romp. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: There is something a little too pat about this narrative, and about the more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger spirit in which it is offered. Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: Benedict Cumberbatch restores mystery to the personality of WikiLeaks' founder, Julian Assange, and fascination to his role as a global crusader for free speech. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: The problem with director Bill Condon's fictionalized account of all this is that, like WikiLeaks itself, there's way too much data to sift through. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The material covered in the production's 128 minutes is not only inherently non-cinematic but not remotely "thrilling," at least in the conventional sense. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: Delves into hokum, and the bromance is overplayed, but also raises some fascinating, complex questions about 21st century journalism. Read more

Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com: "The Fifth Estate" feels unfortunately small and safe. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: It's ironic that Alex Gibney's recent WikiLeaks doc uploads the same material with more dramatic oomph. The Fifth Estate is stuck running in place. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Cumberbatch's subtle and intriguing performance as the inscrutable Aussie loner behind WikiLeaks is surrounded by a plodding and minor melodrama that's ludicrously ill suited to the material. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: The movie can't quite decide what it thinks of [Assange] - or even if it should decide at all. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It's an intellectual grappling match that leaves viewers feeling worked over, disoriented and not much the wiser. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: There are very few good movies about journalism, and even fewer about computers. "The Fifth Estate" succeeds on at least the latter count. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: As much it claims urgency with current events and issues, it seems out of date, even coming just three years after the real events. Read more

Todd Gilchrist, TheWrap: It offers a compelling, complex portrait of the Wikileaks founder that will probably do precisely what the actual Assange fears - namely, paint him as a demagogue whose commitment to institutional corruption is more self-aggrandizing than sincere. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: The Fifth Estate doesn't have the same sharp focus or insight [as The Social Network]. It's adequate and often fun, but no match for Cumberbatch's talents. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: A fairly dull thriller about a hugely influential Internet phenomenon. Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: A film that, for all its restlessness, feels staid and dated. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: A story that's essentially a bunch of guys looking at computer screens - a challenge that Condon wrestles with uneven success. Read more