It’s the season for revisiting the lies and cover-ups around the Iraq
War, as this (coming on the heels of The Report) tells another true
story of governmental deceit, this time from the UK side of things. Which, as it turns out, is just as sinister and blood-thirsty as everyone else.
It’s 2003,
and Katharine Gun (Kiera Knightly) works as at GCHQ as basically an government eavesdropper,
going through bugged conversations for useful information. But when she gets a
US memo asking for blackmail material to swing an upcoming UN vote to make the seemingly
inevitable Iraq War legal she turns whistleblower, leaking it to a friend who
eventually gets it to the press.
This, as you might expect, does not impress
the government, and soon she’s right in their sights. There's something satisfyingly sinister about watching the UK establishment gearing up to crush a prole, and soon the traditional mix of bovver-boy cops and toffee-voiced lawyers are looming ominously over Katharine, with her marriage to a recent immigrant in their sights.
As with The Report,
a big-name cast gives this straightforward story star power, with Matt Smith,
Matthew Goode and Rhys Ifans playing journalists trying to verify the leaked
memo, Jeremy Northam and Tasmin Grieg as members of the establishment, and
Ralph Fiennes as the big gun lawyer Katharine finally finds herself needing.
The
story gradually expands beyond Katharine but she remains central to it, with
Knightly’s performance – veering between all-too-human worry and a firm
determination – keeping things on a human scale.
It’s a compelling, at times
(justifiably) infuriating, watch.
- Anthony Morris
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