Official Secrets
Cast: Keira Knightley, Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, Indira Varma, Rhys Ifans, MyAnna Buring, Tamsin Greig
Director: Gavin Hood
Rating: 

This film, based on the book The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War, tells the true story of British secret-service officer Katharine Gun, who during the immediate run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, leaked a top-secret National Security Agency memo that exposed an illegal U.S.-U.K. spying operation against members of the United Nations Security Council. The memo basically exposed how US and UK blackmailed smaller, undecided member states into voting for war.

In an ideal world, the exposure of such an incriminating document might have unseated two governments and forced the UN Security Council to take a relook at its decision-making body. Unfortunately, nothing like that happened. So what might have developed into an interesting story literally becomes dead meat in uninventive hands. Directed by Gavin Hood from a script by Hood, Gregory Bernstein, and Sarah Bernstein, this film feels rather constrained by its efforts to faithfully follow Gun's travails.