Political thrillers are few and far between nowadays. It feels like it’s been a while since I have seen a political thriller. Political thrillers can be great history lessons to the many as audiences from around the world can learn of events that they might not have heard of, whether that be because they don’t pay attention to the news or they just weren’t old enough. I’m the latter and Official Secrets was a history lesson that’ll stick with me.
Official Secrets follows the events surrounding the beginning of the Iraq invasion. The events centre around Katharine Gun (Keira Knightly) a British whistleblower who leaks a secret NSA document which informs UK intelligence agencies to gather information to help the United States push for the United Nations support of the Iraq invasion. Holding the document and of course, leaking the document is a violation of the Official Secrets Act and the films follows the true events of her life as well as The Observer newspaper and their writer Martin Bright (Matt Smith) who gets a hold of the document.
Edge of your seat is supposed to be where thrillers lead you. Sitting there waiting for the next move, hoping that the characters you’re rooting for are making the correct decisions. Official Secrets doesn’t really keep you on the edge of your seat but instead reminds you about what happened and how it is still relevant to today.
At the time of watching Official Secrets two events were happening in the real world, you had Donald Trump authorising Turkey’s move into Syria and the UK’s Brexit quickly becoming a real event. Official Secrets tells its story not just to inform you of the past but to instead remind you how these types of events are occurring continuosly. In fact, during crucial moments in the film audience members were applauding at moments that you would applaud for happening now in today’s headlines.
The suspense and build-up of the story best come from The Observer newspaper and Martin Bright side of the film. Leaking the document and publishing it is a big and risky move for them and as the wheels start turning the paper and writers also start to derail. The film shows off the power that these governments have at silencing the truth.
On the Katherine Gun side, her story is strong at the start. Katherine considering leaking the document is inspirational stuff but the middle ground to keep her in the story isn’t as strong as she battles to keep her almost deported husband in the country. Gun’s story has a strong finish though which wraps up the story nicely and with a lot of strength.
A late appearance in the film from Ralph Fiennes is the big hit as his arguing as a lawyer is some of the strongest and most believable acting I’ve watched all year. Watching Fiennes, and the rest of the cast shows how much they care about the issues the film presents.
Official Secrets is a film made for the public to watch and learn and realise that maybe we’re letting all of this happen again. The two main countries in the film are once again coming to points of no return with events that will be remembered in history. Official Secrets is a well shot and classly played out political thriller that modern cinema has needed, its a great film and a must-see recent history lesson.