South African writer-director Gavin Hood’s political thriller centers on a British government official who decides that the public’s right to know about deception is worth breaking the Official Secrets Act. Just as U.S. President George W. Bush is justifying the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Katharine Gun (an overwrought Keira Knightley), a mid-level Mandarin Chinese translator at Government Communications Headquarters in Cheltenham, receives a top secret memo from Frank Koza at the NSA. It details a plan to enlist the U.K.’s help in collecting compromising information on United Nations Security Council members with the intention of blackmailing them into voting in favor of invading Iraq. Shocked, Gun realizes that if the British agree, the result would be a war predicated on false data and manipulation. She shares this incendiary information with an anti-war activist friend who passes it along to journalists Martin Bright (Matt Smith), Ed Vulliamy (Rhys Ifans), and Peter Beaumont (Matthew Goode). When The Observer concludes that the memo is authentic and publishes it, a search follows for the leaker. When Gun is arrested and charged with treason, she righteously declares: “I do not gather intelligence so the government can lie to the British people.” Complications include the fact that Gun’s husband (Adam Bakri) is Muslim, an Iraqi Kurdish immigrant who is facing deportation. Eventually, Gun’s lawyer (Ralph Fiennes) will threaten to put the legal basis of the war itself on trial. Based on a true story, the film suffers somewhat from being overly talky and over acted. A strong optional purchase. (S. Granger)
Official Secrets
Paramount, 111 min., R, DVD: $17.99, Nov. 26
Official Secrets
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