The Toronto Film Festival opens on Sept. 5 with Bill Condon's new movie "The Fifth Estate" as the premiere film.
The movie, which was once thought to be a big Oscar contender, opened to lukewarm applause and reviews, ending its run for the Academy Awards. As a headline from the Hollywood Reporter's Scott Feinberg put it: "Awards Prospects Limited for Fest Opener 'The Fifth Estate.'"
The film currently has a 31 percent aggregate score on Rotten Tomatoes, and based on early reviews the film seems to be a superficial take on the Wikileaks scandal. Dennis Harvey of Variety wrote, "Both the kindest and most damning thing you can say about 'The Fifth Estate' is that it primarily hobbles itself by trying to cram in more context-needy material than any single drama should have to bear."
Jordan Hoffman of Film.com stated, "For a film that reminds us over and over that this is a whole new world, this movie feels awfully familiar."
Kevin Jagernauth of the Playlist gave the movie a C- and wrote, "'The Fifth Estate' focuses on what is ultimately a petty personal feud, while mostly missing the revolution that's still happening keystroke by keystroke on computer screens around the world."
Tim Grierson of Screen International was also negative: "The character work seems perfunctory, whether it's the mediocre exploration of Assange and Domscheit-Berg's dynamic or the shallow investigation into Assange's past to hint at what drew him to be so anti-authoritarian."
The new movie stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Bruhl, Alicia Vikander, Laura Linney, Anthony Mackie and Stanley Tucci. Buena Vista is set to launch the movie on Oct. 18. The film is rated R for language and some violence.
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