Official Secrets (2019) | agoodmovietowatch

Rated 7+ IMDb · 70%+ RT Little-known finds Curated by humans

Official Secrets 8.0 2019 Movie

Official Secrets

Dir. Gavin Hood · Canada, China · English, German

Biography of an Iraq War whistleblower

Netflix The Roku Channel Plex Kanopy Philo Sundance Now Amazon Video Apple Itunes Youtube

Our take by Bilal Zouheir

Keira Knightley stars in this incredible true story of an Iraq War whistleblower who remains relatively little-known in the U.S. Katharine Gun was working for the communications office for the British government when she received a memo in the months leading to the war that showed that the U.S. requested illegal wiretapping assistance from the U.K. on U.N. diplomats. In a heroic act, she chooses to share this memo, hoping that it would stop her government (then led by Tony Blair) from going to war. Spoiler alert: didn’t happen, but this decision, which first seemed like a personal sacrifice, has severe implications on her family as the government finds out that she was behind the leak. A compelling political mystery of a case that deserves much more attention than it once got.

What happens

The true story of British intelligence whistleblower Katharine Gun who—prior to the 2003 Iraq invasion—leaked a top-secret NSA memo exposing a joint US-UK illegal spying operation against members of the UN Security Council. The memo proposed blackmailing member states into voting for war.

What the critics said

Notable Critics

"Bloody hell, the Brits do low-key, paranoid procedural dramas like Official Secrets well, with a pervading chill and no flash: The crispness cuts like a knife."

— David Edelstein

"It's Knightley's intensely focused performance that sustains the film. She inhabits Gun with an almost ascetic bearing, especially when her drawn countenance is placed against the sepulchral gloom of the GCHQ environs."

— Matthew Taylor

Awards

Sundance

1 nom

Nominated: Official Selection

Comments

Add your review

Your email address will not be published.*

Movies like Official Secrets

About the author

Bilal Zouheir

Bilal Zouheir

Bilal Zouheir is the founder of A Good Movie to Watch. He is based in the US and a member of the Nevada Film Critics Society. He grew up in Morocco, where he learned English from watching movies. Bilal's work with A Good Movie to Watch is focused on offering an alternative to streaming algorithms, which are often used as commercial tools by streaming services.