To put it simply, “The Fifth Estate” is intense.

The political drama is the story of Julian Assange, Daniel Domscheit-Berg and “WikiLeaks,” the website that revealed hundreds of government secrets and classified information starting in 2006.

In Hollywood, every film has a hero. However, this movie never explicitly paints Assange as a traitor, Domscheit-Berg as a hero, or vice versa. While it does lean to one side more than the other, it’s also careful to let the audience decide what they think is right and wrong.

“The Fifth Estate” wants the audience to seek the truth.

Known for portraying highly intelligent characters like Sherlock Holmes and Stephen Hawking, Benedict Cumberbatch does an excellent job of playing Assange. Normally, fans can’t help but like whatever character Cumberbatch is playing, even if it is a villain (a la Khan from “Star Trek Into Darkness”), but that’s not the case here.

With his usual acting-with-his-eyes style, Cumberbatch portrays Assange as emotional, brilliant and sociopathic. You can never quite come to terms with the character, and you never really like him.

That said, Daniel Brühl’s portrayal of Domscheit-Berg may leave the audience flip-flopping on the line between liking and disliking the character, but the movie doesn’t completely try to force one way or the other.

The film is great because it also shows the impact that WikiLeaks had not only on the government and the media, but also worldwide. It travels from London to Germany and Africa to the United States. Journalism junkies are treated to views of worldwide newspaper headquarters and the journalists who come to realize the impact Assange and his website had on the media and the world.

Even though “The Fifth Estate” is two hours long, the action and urgency in the film never leaves the audience bored. It’s definitely a film that should be seen more than once, just to be able to take in the full story that it’s trying to tell.

_MOVE gives “The Fifth Estate 4 out of 5 stars._