The true life story of a woman who put the truth before career and personal life. The true life story of Katharine Gun, the brave young woman who leaked a document, telling us exactly what was happening in Iraq.

It's a terrific film, it focuses on a story which for many is still hard to swallow. It's such an exciting movie, crammed with tension, as a political story you may expect it to be slow, it isn't.

The performances are superb, Kiera Knightley is fantastic as Katharine, Ralph Fiennes and Matt Smith are also on point.

IMDb is a platform for reviewing films and shows, it's a terrific site, and not the place for my political views. I'll just leave this, this is the first time I've not switched off something featuring Tony Blair.

Great film, 8/10.

It's 2003 and America is making the case to go to war with Iraq. Katharine Gun (Keira Knightley) is a British intelligence translator in GCHQ. They secretly listen in on communications around the world. Everybody gets an email ordering them to work with the Americans to dig up dirt on other UN Security Council states and push them to pass a war vote. Katharine is shocked. Despite the powerful Official Secrets Act, she risks everything to leak the damaging memo to the public. Journalist Martin Bright (Matt Smith) breaks with his paper's endorsement of the war to publish the article as the power of the state bears down upon Katharine and her refugee husband.

I am surprised at the tension of this movie. It helps that I remember a little of the story but not its outcome for Katharine. One thing that frustrated me early on is the attitude of the husband. Without any insights into his character, he can come off as a callous clueless buffoon. The movie needs to lay out his situation from the beginning so that the audience can appreciate his point of view. The other minor issue is the title. It is the blandest of titles. The book's title "The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War" would be vastly better. This movie has lots of tension as a thriller and loads of insight into war creating.

Keira Knightley is a 'listener' for GCHQ, the British spy agency that listens in on phone conversations. All of the news is about the forthcoming Iraqi war, and she spends a lot of time shouting at the TV whenever Tony Blair is on. One day a memo comes through: the CIA is looking for stuff to blackmail members of the UN Security Council, so they'll vote more sanctions on Iraq, justifying an invasion by the U.S. and Britain. So she leaks the memo, in defiance of the Official Secrets Act. Eventually, the close and constant quizzing of her colleagues gets to her and she marches in and confesses she was the leaker.

It's an unlikely story: so much so, I find it unbelievable except that it seems to be true. In fact, it's a very well told told, with good actors (Matthew Goode, Ralph Fiennes, Matt Smith, Rhys Ifans). What it is not is a movie, with its low-level lighting, limited focal depth, fixed camera and compositions that scream out that, yes, this is being shown in a wide-screen format on the movie screen, but it's set up so you can cut off the edges for standard TV composition without losing anything.

In short, take a look at it when it shows up on TV. It's worth your time. It's just not the thing to pay to go to a movie theater for.