Official Secrets (2019)
By
Jesse E. Mullen
Some films are purely for enjoyment, while others serve a deeper purpose. They either educate the public on a past injustice, give context to a historical moment, or try to prevent a similar crisis in the future.
Official Secrets does all three. Starring Keira Knightly as Katherine Gun, a British GCHQ spy who uncovers a memo from the NSA revealing a conspiracy between the British and US governments. Katherine must choose between her legal obligations and her ethical desire to expose her government to the people she signed on to protect.
Naturally, the film challenges the viewer to also challenge their own preconceived notions about spies and whistleblowers. The moral of the story – don’t let partisanship get in the way of the bigger picture.
The film is a visual marvel, despite being fairly conservative on special effects. The integration of real-life footage of Tony Blair, George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and Colin Powell on TV screens throughout adds a sense of reality to the diegesis. Contrasting this footage, with a stunning lead performance by Knightly, and the film is given both emotional and factual weight. 10/10
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