OFFICIAL SECRETS : Tuesday 10th December 2019.

'OFFICIAL SECRETS' which I finally got around to seeing this week, is an MA15+ Rated British and American Co-Produced documentary drama offering Directed and Co-Written for the screen by Gavin Hood, whose previous film making credits include 'Tsotsi', 'Rendition', 'X-Men Origins : Wolverine', 'Ender's Game' and 'Eye in the Sky' more recently. Based on the 2008 book 'The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War' by Marcia and Thomas Mitchell, the film saw its World Premier screening at Sundance back in January this year, had its US release at the end of August, its UK release in mid-October and it finally arrived into Australian cinemas at the back end of November. Having garnered generally average Reviews en route, although Keira Knightley, as the lead Actress, has been praised for her performance, the film has so far taken close to US$6M.

In this true story, here Katherine Teresa Gun (Keira Knightley) is a British translator who worked for the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), a British intelligence agency, based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, who's job it was to translate Mandarin Chinese into English. At the end of January 2003, while at work at GCHQ Gun read an email from a Frank Koza, the Chief of Staff at the 'regional targets' division of the American National Security Agency, a US intelligence agency. The email requested aid in a secret operation to bug the United Nations offices of six nations, those being Angola, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea, and Pakistan. These were the six 'swing nations' on the UN Security Council that could determine whether the UN approved the invasion of Iraq, or not, and to overthrow its President Saddam Hussein.

Gun was so outraged by the email, that she secretly downloaded a copy of the email to a disc, printed off a copy and took it home with her. After contemplating the email over the weekend, Gun gave the email to a friend, Yvonne Ridley (Hattie Morahan) who was acquainted with several journalists, but most notably Martin Bright (Matt Smith) who worked at The Observer newspaper. At first Bright doubted the authenticity of the email and was ordered by his Editor Roger Alton (Conleth Hill) to do some further investigative work to uncover the facts behind the mystery email, before going to print.

Gun heard no more of the email, and had all but forgotten about it until early in March, when she saw it reproduced on the front page of The Observer newspaper. The next day, with the story leaked to the worlds press and media centres; Bright's telephone ringing hot; and the GCHQ going into lockdown with everyone a suspect and everyone in Gun's department being interviewed to find the suspect and the culprit who dared to contravene the Official Secrets Act. However, soon after this worldwide breaking news, the American media channels get on the phone and claim that the leaked document is a fake, because  of spelling errors in the text that are written in English rather than American. Upon checking the original transcript with his reported text, it is revealed that the press office assistant Nicole Mowbray (Hanako Footman) had corrected Bright's written text using spell checker, therefore casting doubt over the validity that the email is genuine.  

Less than a week after the Observer story, Gun, who was so wracked with guilt over what she had done, and wanting to protect the integrity and wellbeing of her work colleagues, confessed to her line manager at GCHQ that she had leaked the email, and was promptly arrested, subject to questioning, and is released pending a decision to prosecute in three months hence. In the meantime, her house is turned upside down, and her husband Yasar Gun (Adam Bakri) who coincidentally is an Iraq foreign national and a Muslim, who only has residency status because of his marriage to Katherine, is about to have his life turned inside out too by less than supportive authorities. Meanwhile, Guns court appointed lawyer states to her upon her release from Police custody that this case is way to far above her head, and that she should contact the team at 'Liberty' who are more versed in the field of work that she clearly needs.

Bright enlists the support of fellow Observer investigative journalist Ed Vulliamy (Rhys Ifans) who is furious at censorship by his own paper of a story he filed during October-December 2002 from an inside CIA source, affirming that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, while intelligence was being 'cooked up' by a special office in the Pentagon - and then locating the NSA secret agent, Frank Koza, who ordered the illegal bugging, and was the originator of Gun's leaked email. In addition, Peter Beaumont (Matthew Goode) who is the foreign affairs editor at The Observer, is posted to Iraq to report on the success, or not, of the US Army's search for Iraq's alleged stash of weapons of mass destruction, which at the time was drawing a big fat hairy blank!

In the meantime, Gun takes the advice of her former state chosen lawyer and visits the offices of Liberty which is headed up by Director Shami Chakrabarti (Indira Varma). Liberty is an advocacy group which promotes civil liberties and human rights, and often offers its expert services for free, as they did in Gun's case, utilising the input of Ben Emmerson (Ralph Fiennes) a prominent British barrister, specialising in public international law, human rights and humanitarian law, and international criminal law.

Gun has some decisions to make if she is to be prosecuted, and in the meantime is told in no uncertain terms that when she signed her contract of employment with the GCHQ she was also signing the Official Secrets Act which strictly forbids her to reveal any details at all about her work at GCHQ to her defending counsel, or to anyone else for that matter, and if it is found that she has, then additional charges will be brought against her. All this is pending on whether GCHQ and indeed the Government of the UK wish to prosecute, and so Gun has to playing the waiting game, bide her time, and sit idly at home for six months awaiting next steps. When Emmerson calls her one morning with the good news that she is now able to discuss freely her case with him, he counters this with the not so good news that the prosecution is going ahead.

With the appointed date of Gun's court hearing approaching, her decision rests with to plead guilty or not guilty, with the latter resting upon proving that the 2003 War in Iraq was in fact illegal under international law. The day before the trial, Gun's defence team had asks the Government for any records of legal advice about the lawfulness of the war that it had received during the run-up to the war. Gun planned to plead 'not guilty', saying in her defence that she acted to prevent imminent loss of life in a war she considered illegal. On her day in court before taking the stand she meets Bright for the first time, and he gives her reassurances that what she did was brave and courageous, and that he will be in court watching the proceedings and sends her his support.

The case came to court on 24th February 2004. Within half an hour, the case was dropped because the prosecution declined to offer any evidence. A full trial might have exposed any such documents, sought from the Government the day before by Emmerson, to public scrutiny, as the defence was expected to argue that trying to stop an unlawful war of aggression overcame Gun's obligations under the Official Secrets Act, and in revealing that both powers on either side of the Atlantic were complicit in an illegal war would have exposed them both to a whole world of scrutiny and hurt that neither wanted. And so the Judge announces to Katherine Gun, that she is free to go. 

In a mid-credits scene we see Emmerson sea fishing at a beach close by to his holiday home, when Ken Macdonald (Jeremy Northam) the Director of Public Prosecutions siddles up to his long time buddy with his own tackle box and rod. They had previously crossed swords over the Gun case when Macdonald as the newly appointed DPP announced that he would be prosecuting the case which Emmerson would be defending. In the final analysis Macdonald tries to justify his position for keeping Gun hanging for almost a year in limbo, at which point Emmerson replies with go find another spot to fish that is not close to me!

I have to say that I enjoyed 'Official Secrets' more than I expected. It's a slow burn of a movie, especially the second act when the storyline starts to meander a little, particularly after the intensity and emotion of the first act when the principled Katherine Gun, who has nothing to gain and everything to lose puts everything on the line - herself, her husband and her work colleagues for a cause she truly believes in and is deeply committed to, and before the gripping third act which sees the tables turned unexpectedly in her favour and the big pay off. This is Keira Knightley's show for sure, aided by a fine turn from Ralph Fiennes in the little screen time he does have, all pulled together by Director Gavin Hood, who has demonstrated before his finesse with crafting a thought provoking true life human drama of a serious subject matter that resonates in today's world as much as it did back in 2003, and even though this political scandal with all its legal and journalistic intrigue may have faded from memory, it is a story that needed to be told.

'Official Secrets' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 21st November 2019.

Heralding in the movie industry's 2019 awards season, the 23rd annual Hollywood Film Awards took place earlier this month on Sunday 3rd November at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Santa Monica, California, and this year Hosted by American comedian and Actor Rob Riggle. 

In brief, this years winners and grinners and proud recipients of a Hollywood Film Award were :

* Hollywood Career Achievement Award, presented to Charlize Theron

* Hollywood Actor Award, presented to Antonio Banderas for 'Pain and Glory'

* Hollywood Actress Award, presented to Renee Zellweger for 'Judy'

* Hollywood Supporting Actor Award, presented to Al Pacino for 'The Irishman'

* Hollywood Supporting Actress Award, presented to Laura Dern for 'Marriage Story'

* Hollywood Blockbuster Award, presented to Kevin Feige and Victoria Alonso for 'Avengers: Endgame'

* Hollywood Song Award, presented to Pharrell Williams for 'Letter to My Godfather', from 'The Black Godfather'

* Hollywood Film Composer Award, presented to Randy Newman for 'Marriage Story'

* Hollywood Filmmaker Award, presented to Bong Joon Ho for 'Parasite'

* Hollywood Producer Award, presented to Emma Tillinger Koskoff for 'The Irishman'

* Hollywood Director Award, presented to James Mangold for 'Ford v. Ferrari'

* Hollywood Screenwriter Award, presented to Anthony McCarten for 'The Two Popes'

* Hollywood Breakout Actor Award, presented to Taron Egerton for 'Rocketman'

* Hollywood Breakout Actress Award, presented to Cynthia Erivo for 'Harriet'

* Hollywood Breakthrough Director Award, presented to Olivia Wilde for 'Booksmart'

* Hollywood Breakthrough Screenwriter Award, presented to Shia LaBeouf for 'Honey Boy'

* Hollywood Animation Award, presented to 'Toy Story 4'

* Hollywood Cinematography Award, presented to Mihai Malaimare Jnr. for 'Jojo Rabbit'

* Hollywood Editor Award, presented to Michael McCusker and Andrew Buckland for 'Ford v. Ferrari'

* Hollywood Production Design Award, presented to Ra Vincent for 'Jojo Rabbit'

* Hollywood Visual Effects Award, presented to Pablo Helman for 'The Irishman'

This week, there are six latest release new movies coming to your local Odeon, kicking off with a autobiographical drama of a now British Actor's true life troubled mid-teenage years growing up with Nigerian parentage in a white working class family in Tilbury (25 miles east of London) and joining a white supremacist skin-head gang. Next up we have a documentary drama recounting the story of a leaked top secret memo from the US by a British Government intelligence operative in the wake of 9/11 and which may have contributed to the start of the War in Iraq. We then turn attention to an action drama film of an unorthodox cop who makes the decision to put Manhattan Island into complete lock down by sealing off all the bridges connecting it to the mainland as he goes in search of a pair of ruthless cop killers. This is followed by an Australian offering of a husband and wife pair of puppeteers in the 17th Century for whom tragedy and loss has irreversible consequences. Next is  feel good musical biographical comedy drama about a bunch of singing fishermen in England's South West who are given the chance of fame and fortune by a Record Exec., but do they really want it, and at what costs ultimately to all concerned. We close the week with an intimate look inside the lives of six die hard fans of a hugely influential British electronic rock band still going strong after nearly forty years combined with live recorded footage from a famed Berlin concert in 2018, and released in select cinemas worldwide for one night only.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the six latest release new movies as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release and as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.

'FARMING' (Rated MA15+) - this British autobiographical coming of age drama film is Directed and Written by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, the British Actor, former Model and now turned Director in this his debut feature. The film charts the story of his own life based on his early childhood up until his late teen years. The film has divided audiences and critics, and while the film first Premiered at 2018's Toronto Film Festival it went on to win the Best British Feature Film Award at this years Edinburgh Film Festival back in June this year. Akinnuoye-Agbaje's previous Acting credits take in the likes of 'Congo' (his big screen debut in 1995), 'Ace Ventura : When Nature Calls', 'The Mummy Returns', 'The Bourne Identity', 'Killer Elite', 'The Thing', 'Bullet to the Head', 'Thor : The Dark World', 'Pompei', 'Trumbo', 'Concussion', 'Suicide Squad' as well as appearances on numerous TV shows including 'Lost' and 'Game of Thrones'. The film was released in the UK in early October and in the US in late October.

Akinnuoye-Agbaje was born in Islington, London, to Nigerian parents of Yoruba origin, who were students in the UK. When he was six weeks old, his biological parents gave him up to a white working-class family in Tilbury, Essex. This was a common practice in this era among Nigerian families, when parents sent young children to live in the UK (farmed out) with white foster parents in the hopes their children would have better lives. When he was eight years old, his biological parents brought him back to Nigeria but, as he was unable to speak the Yoruba language and forbidden by his parents to speak English, he was returned to Tilbury shortly thereafter. The brief exposure to Nigeria left him struggling to reconcile his heritage with the distinctly British culture and environment he was raised in. As a young boy, facing a cultural identity crisis, he joined a local skinhead gang led by a white supremacist in order to escape racial persecution at their hands. At 16 years old, having become a thief, his foster parents sent him to a boarding school in Surrey where he ultimately attempted suicide before coming to terms with his background and turning his life around. Also starring Damson Idris, Kate Beckinsale, John Dagleish, Jaime Winstone and Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

'OFFICIAL SECRETS' (Rated MA15+) - this British and American Co-Produced documentary drama offering is Directed and Co-Written for the screen by Gavin Hood whose previous film making credits include 'Tsotsi', 'Rendition', 'X-Men Origins : Wolverine', 'Ender's Game' and 'Eye in the Sky' more recently. In 2003, in the lead up to the Iraq War, British intelligence specialist Katharine Gun (Keira Knightley) working for GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) located in Cheltenham, England, receives a memo from the NSA (National Security Agency of the US) with a shocking directive: the United States is enlisting Britain's help in collecting compromising information on U.N. Security Council members to blackmail them into voting in favor of an invasion of Iraq. Unable to stand by and watch the world be rushed into war, Gun makes the gut-wrenching decision to defy her government and leak the top-secret memo to the press. The film also stars Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, Rhys Ifans, Ralph Fiennes and Jeremy Northam. The film saw its World Premier screening at Sundance back in January this year, had its US release at the end of August, its UK release in  mid-October and now it finally arrives onto Australian shores. The film has so far taken close to US$6M.

'21 BRIDGES' (Rated MA15+) - here Irish television Director Brian Kirk directs only his second feature film after directing turns on such notable TV shows as 'Game of Thrones', 'The Tudors', 'Murphy's Law', 'Dexter', 'Luther' and 'Boardwalk Empire' amongst others. Andre Davis (Chadwick Boseman) a seasoned New York Police Department Detective takes the somewhat unorthodox approach of shutting down all twenty-one bridges that connects Manhattan Island with the mainland, as he locks down the city and goes on the hunt for a pair of cop killers. Also starring J.K. Simmons, Sienna Miller, Taylor Kitsch, Stephan James and Keith David, this film is released Stateside this week too.

'JUDY AND PUNCH' (Rated MA15+) - this Australian drama film is Directed and Written by Aussie film and TV Actress Mirrah Foulkes in her feature film Directorial debut. It's the mid-17th century in the anarchic town of Seaside which has spiralled into violence, mob rule and God-fearing hysteria. Amongst the chaos, one glimmer of artistry remains, that is, Punch and Judy's puppet theatre. Once a master puppeteer, the charismatic Punch (Damon Herriman) has fallen too much under the sway of whiskey, but his wife Judy (Mia Wasikowska) is a puppeteering genius and ensures that their shows are a hit with the baying crowds, whilst playing the dutiful and caring mother to their baby daughter. The story ratchets up a notch when a Punch bender goes disastrously and violently wrong, which results in Judy being beaten to near death, and presumed dead after an argument regarding their missing child. And so abandoned by Punch and his crime all but covered up, she seeks vengeance against her former husband and those that have wronged her, and the whereabouts of their daughter. The film saw its World Premier showing at Sundance Film Festival back in January this year.

'FISHERMAN'S FRIENDS' (Rated M) - here we have a British biographical comedy drama film Directed by Chris Foggin based on a true story about Port Isaac's 'Fisherman's Friends', a group of Cornish fishermen who were signed by Universal Records in 2010 and achieved a Top 10 hit with their debut album of traditional sea shanties. A fast living, cynical London music executive reluctantly heads to Cornwall on a colleague’s stag weekend where he’s pranked by his boss into trying to sign a group of sea shanty-singing fishermen. He becomes the ultimate ‘fish out of water’ struggling to gain the respect or enthusiasm of the unlikely ten piece (ageing) boy band who value friendship and community over fame and fortune. Attempting to overcome the fishermen’s scepticism about the music business, he finds himself drawn into their local community, has his integrity tested and ultimately is shown the meaning of loyalty, love and friendship, forcing him to take stock of what really matters in life. Starring Daniel Mays, James Purefoy, David Hayman, Noel Clarke and Tuppence Middleton.

'DEPECHE MODE : SPIRITS IN THE FOREST' (Rated CTC) - during 2017/2018 Depeche Mode embarked on their Global Spirit Tour, in which they performed to more than three million fans at 115 shows around the world. Directed by award-winning filmmaker and longtime artistic collaborator Anton Corbijn,  he here captures the energy and spectacle of the band’s performance from the tour along with a deeper look into how their music and shows have been woven into the fabric of their fans’ lives. Through the deeply emotional stories of six special Depeche Mode fans, the film shows not only how and why the band’s popularity and relevance has continued to grow over the course of their career, but provides a unique look into their music’s incredible power to build communities, enable people to overcome adversity, and create connections across the boundaries of language, location, gender, age, and circumstance. 'Depeche Mode: SPIRITS in the Forest' goes beyond the typical concert film, weaving together exhilarating musical performances, filmed at the final shows of the Global Spirit Tour in Berlin’s famed Waldbuhne ('Forest Stage'), with intimate documentary footage filmed in fans’ hometowns across the globe. Released in cinemas worldwide for one night only, on 21st November 2019.

With six new release movies this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere in the week ahead, at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-