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Official Secrets

2019

Gavin Hood

Keira Knightley, Matt Smith, Ralph Fiennes, Matthew Goode ...

6.5

5,170

Thriller. Drama 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… [+]

	Author	Review
United States	David Rooney The Hollywood Reporter	"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"	POS
United States	Amy Nicholson Variety	"'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"	NEU
United States	Ann Hornaday The Washington Post	"Directed with workmanlike efficiency by Gavin Hood (...) 'Official Secrets' uses the recent past to invite viewers to interrogate our present (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Manohla Dargis The New York Times	"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"	NEU
United States	Glenn Kenny rogerebert.com	"[It] feels both dutiful and dry (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"	NEG
United States	Matt Goldberg Collider	"[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"	NEG
United Kingdom	Tim Robey Telegraph	"[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)"	NEG
United Kingdom	Tim Grierson Screendaily	"A sturdy, entertaining political thriller that pushes all the right buttons and triggers all the right outraged reactions. Keira Knightley is persuasive as Katharine Gun"	POS
United Kingdom	Benjamin Lee The Guardian	"[Knightley's] performance is the indisputable highlight of a well-intentioned but often plodding film (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United Kingdom	Amber Wilkinson The Times	"Hood boils down the facts to a winning formula, while keeping the pace brisk and the dialogue believable. There’s also a welcome injection of humour (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Clarisse Loughrey The Independent	"Despite Knightley’s best efforts, the film feels too simplistic in its approach to a staggering story (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
Ireland	Donald Clarke Irish Times	"A fascinating tale (...) An efficient, diverting exercise that will educate (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
Ireland	Deirdre Molumby entertainment.ie	"Thanks to its excellent cast and tight screenplay, 'Official Secrets' elevates itself above the label of just another 'Spotlight' (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS

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