Katherine Gun (Keira Knightly) suffers a crisis of
conscience when she discovers that both the United States and the United
Kingdom are attempting to force a UN vote so that the U.S. and U.K. can invade
Iraq despite the fact that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq So
she leaks a document that ends up being published by Marin Bright (Matt Smith),
but a mistake in the editing involving the British spelling of American words
enables the government to say the document is a fake and as we know from
history, the attempt to expose corruption and stop the war fails, Katherine
ends up surrendering to her superiors and what follows is a year gas lighting
and so on that threatens to send her to jail for treason and there is even an
attempt to have her husband deported and accusations that she is a spy. The
case gains the attention of Ben Emmerson (Ralph Fiennes), who becomes her legal
counsel.
This is based on a true story and I am shocked that I never
heard of this woman and the case since it predates controversies to come like
Julian Assange, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning to name a few. Writer and
Director Gavin Hood does a masterful job of bringing the story to life with a
mix of actual television footage and some terrific acting from Keira Knightly,
Matt Smith and Ralph Fiennes. I may not know their names, but I do recognize
their faces as the film features a terrific supporting cast that includes
Matthew Goode, Indira Varma, Rhys Ifans, Jack Farthing, Kenneth Cranham and
Peter Guinness.
Official Secrets is a riveting political drama that is not
be missed when it premieres in select theaters in both the U.S. and U.K. on
August 30th, 2019 from IFC
Films.
Learn more about Official Secrets and the true story behind it by
checking out my interview with Writer and Director Gavin Hood by clicking here.
© Copyright 2019 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.