In Toronto, ‘Fifth Estate’ Filmmakers Embrace Ambiguity

TORONTO â€" “Thumbs up, thumbs down, I find that very limiting.”

So said the suave, soft-spoken Benedict Cumberbatch, as he explained â€" for maybe the 10th time â€" that he and others who made “The Fifth Estate” had not come to judge Julian Assange.

It was clearly a well-crafted talking point, as the actors and filmmakers had it down pat, both at the Friday morning news conference, and in brief remarks before a gala screening here on Thursday night at the Toronto International Film Festival.

“Embrace the ambiguity, be more ambiguous,” said Bill Condon, the director, in describing his marching orders from both DreamWorks and Participant Media, which helped finance the film about Mr. Assange and WikiLeaks.

Ambiguity, as Mr. Condon pointed out at the news conference, isn’t normally the stuff of Hollywood movies. But, in this case, it is both a marketing message â€" who needs to stir up Mr. Assange and his supporters? â€" and a deeply embedded characteristic of the film.

“The Fifth Estate” deals mostly with the adventures of Mr. Assange from 2007 to 2010, as he made WikiLeaks a power in the political and business worlds by posting secrets from anonymous whistle-blowers. The legal blowback was considerable, as some supporters of Mr. Assange, including his partner, Daniel Domscheit-Berg â€" on whose book the film is partially based â€" developed doubts about the unfettered release of information that might damage individuals and legitimate political or business efforts.

But Mr. Condon said he was determined to have it both ways, to portray both the good and the ill caused by WikiLeaks, without forcing a choice on the viewer.

At the news conference, Mr. Condon said he had spoken with a number of viewers who described “The Fifth Estate’s” portrayal of Mr. Assange as an “odd experience of being impressed by him, then being turned off by him, every five minutes.”

As an artistic stance, honest ambiguity can be fine. As a talking point, it has its limits. Reporters listened, but kept wanting to know, for instance, what Mr. Cumberbatch thought Mr. Assange â€" still being harbored in the Ecuador Embassy in London against extradition to Sweden for questioning in a sex case â€" would think of the film.

“I’m not him, surprisingly enough,” Mr. Cumberbatch said, in yet another nimble dodge. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here.”