Official Secrets

Even if Katharine Gun’s whistleblowing didn’t ultimately have the effect she intended, Official Secrets shines a worthwhile spotlight on her unsung heroics.

Set in 2003, this taut and provocative thriller captures both the broad sociopolitical complexity and the intimate character-driven dynamics inherent in its true-life story of speaking truth to power in the face of great personal risk.

Specifically, Katharine (Keira Knightley) was a translator for British intelligence service GCHQ when she received an alarming email from a high-ranking U.S. security official detailing plans to pressure certain delegates to vote for a United Nations resolution supporting military action against Iraq, based on the government’s claim that dictator Saddam Hussein is hoarding weapons of mass destruction.

In an effort to obstruct the impending global conflict, Katharine anonymously leaks the memo to an antiwar activist and eventually to the London newspaper The Observer, where a reporter (Matt Smith) scrambles to verify its authenticity. The story turns into a front-page bombshell.

Katharine later is prompted to expose her identity, yielding accusations of violating Britain’s Official Secrets Act of 1989 and making her a target for persecution by Scotland Yard investigators. She hires a powerful lawyer (Ralph Fiennes) and remains resolute in her beliefs.

“We’ll go to war based on blackmail and lies, and I can’t live with that,” Katharine explains to her husband (Adam Bakri), whose status as a Kurdish immigrant doesn’t help her cause.

Official Secrets is an intriguing examination of the buildup to the Iraq War from a British perspective, exploring the nature of classified intelligence in the pre-WikiLeaks age, as well as the responsibility of the free press to dig beneath government cover-ups and spin control.

South African filmmaker Gavin Hood (Eye in the Sky) ratchets up the tension while saluting behind-the-scenes intelligence personnel who toil away in morally ambiguous territory.

As a result, the film is most compelling when it focuses on Katharine instead of on legal wrangling or the Deep Throat-style investigative journalism. Knightley finds an effective balance between her character’s guilt and paranoia, and her courage and conviction.

The screenplay, based on a nonfiction book by American authors Marcia and Thomas Mitchell, muddles through some embellishments and contrivances, yet sufficiently gets the blood boiling while mostly avoiding partisan posturing.

Along the way, the familiarity of its high-stakes espionage landscape is given a fresh resonance, especially with the benefit of hindsight.

Rated R, 112 minutes.