Tense biographical thriller movie becomes surprise Netflix hit

Stephen Porzio

Holding an 89% Rotten Tomatoes score, the film was not a big box office hit but is finding an audience on streaming.

A tense biographical political thriller now on Netflix was one of the most streamed movies in the UK over the past week, according to JustWatch.

That film is 2019’s Official Secrets, which stars Keira Knightley as real-life British woman Katharine Gun who worked as a translator for the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) before becoming an Iraq War whistleblower.

The plot synopsis for the movie reads:

“One day in 2003, in the lead up to the Iraq War, British intelligence specialist Katharine Gun receives a memo from the NSA with a shocking directive: the United States is enlisting Britain’s help in collecting compromising information on U.N. Security Council members to blackmail them into voting in favor of an invasion of Iraq.

“Unable to stand by and watch the world be rushed into war, Gun makes the gut-wrenching decision to defy her government and leak the memo to the press.”

Directed by Gavin Hood (Eye in the Sky, Wolverine), the starry cast of Official Secrets also includes Conleth Hill, Indira Varma, Jeremy Northam, Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, MyAnna Buring, Ralph Fiennes, Rhys Ifans and Tamsin Greig.

The movie earned very positive notices upon release, with particular praise being given to Knightley for her central turn and for the film’s important story.

It garnered an 82% critics score and an 89% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

And though Official Secrets was not a huge box office hit – grossing just over $10 million upon release – it has found a second life on Netflix.

The film has made the top 10 of JustWatch’s most recent weekly streaming film chart for the UK.

JustWatch’s charts are calculated by its users’ activity from the past seven days.

“This includes clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as ‘seen’,” the service states.

You can read a sample of some of the positive reviews Official Secrets received from critics below:

ChrisStuckmann.com: “One of Keira Knightley’s best performances.”

Financial Times: “Hood knows how to crank the tension and a certain fury ticks under the story.”

Observer: “As concisely informative as an Economist article and as gripping as a beach read.”

Sydney Morning Herald: “The script, based on a book by Marcia and Thomas Mitchell, keeps layering in complexity, refusing to go dumb. And Knightley’s performance gets steelier as she struggles to overcome her fears.”

Wall Street Journal: “An unabashedly political movie that is, essentially, a procedural, but also a very sophisticated, ornate, complex and convincing thriller.”

Official Secrets is streaming on Netflix in the UK and Ireland right now.

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