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Official Secrets

6.5

4,554

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Original title: Official Secrets
Year: 2019
Running time: 112 min.
Country: United Kingdom
Director: Gavin Hood
Screenwriter: Gregory Bernstein, Sara Bernstein, Gavin Hood. Book: Marcia Mitchell, Thomas Mitchell
Music: Paul Hepker, Mark Kilian
Cinematography: Florian Hoffmeister
Cast: Keira Knightley, Matt Smith, Ralph Fiennes, Matthew Goode, Indira Varma, Tamsin Greig, Conleth Hill, Kenneth Cranham, Lee Byford, Dave Simon, Jeremy Northam, Rhys Ifans, Adam Bakri, MyAnna Buring, Hattie Morahan, John Heffernan, Monica Dolan, Jack Farthing, Peter Guinness, Angus Wright, Darrell D'SilvaSee 8 More
Producer: Co-production United Kingdom-United States;
Clear Pictures Entertainment, Raindog Films, Screen Yorkshire. Distributor: Entertainment One
Genre: Thriller. Drama | Based On A True Story. Spy Film. Politics. Iraq War
Synopsis: In 2003, as politicians in Britain and the US angle to invade Iraq, GCHQ translator Katharine Gun (Knightley) leaks a classified e-mail that urges spying on members of the UN Security Council to force through the resolution to go to war. Charged with breaking the Official Secrets Act, and facing imprisonment, Katharine and her lawyers set out to defend her actions. With her life, liberty and marriage threatened, she must stand up for what she believes in…

Critics' reviews

"A straightforward, solidly old-fashioned slice of real-life espionage, journalistic and legal intrigue that gets the job done in engrossing, clear-eyed fashion even if it lacks much in the way of stylistic verve"

David Rooney: The Hollywood Reporter
"'Official Secrets' doesn’t seem to intimately know Gun. It’s a dry and honorable retelling of events that exists mostly to remind us who she was"

Amy Nicholson: Variety
"Directed with workmanlike efficiency by Gavin Hood (...) 'Official Secrets' uses the recent past to invite viewers to interrogate our present (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"

Ann Hornaday: The Washington Post
"The characters are malnourished and Hood’s attempts to build suspense often fall flat (...) Fiennes pulls you toward him whatever he’s saying or doing, elevating both “Official Secrets” and the other actors"

Manohla Dargis: The New York Times
"[It] feels both dutiful and dry (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"

Glenn Kenny: rogerebert.com
"[It is] instantly forgettable and completely unremarkable in every conceivable way (...) The moral crux of Gavin Hood’s movie (...) is lost in a dry recitation of facts"

Matt Goldberg: Collider
"[It] is more dossier than drama (...) 'Official Secrets' does its baseline job if you needed the story of Katharine Gun retold and vaguely dramatised, but it’s dreary entertainment (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"

Tim Robey: Telegraph
Show 6 more reviews

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