Apparently the term 'whistle blower' comes from Victorian England, where a Bobbie on the beat would literally blow his whistle if he saw a wrong-doing in progress. This would alert those in the surrounding area, who would cry out loud "Cor blimey guv'nor, there's a wrong 'un about, keep your head down" then go about their business once more.

These days the term refers to someone who makes public knowledge of dubious, underhand or downright illegal actions that they're aware of, but without the need of an actual whistle, which is a bit of a shame really.

The most notorious whistle-blowing individual of late is Julian Assange, an Australian nerd who likes to get things out in the open.

After much correspondence on the internet, Daniel Berg (Daniel Brühl) finally gets to meet Julian (Benedict Cumberbatch) in the flesh at an event in Berlin. Daniel admires Julian's passion as an activist, and would really like to be involved some way. Julian gets on with Daniel, and decides that they could work together.

Between them they dream up the idea of a website where anonymous sources could reveal documents that would otherwise be withheld from public viewing. And so WikiLeaks was born.

After a number of successful campaigns, the pair come across some information that, it's fair to say, is highly sensitive, and if leaked, would cause shockwaves the world over. It would certainly have repercussions, not least for the two creators of WikiLeaks themselves.

The experiment proved that watching relatives fornicate on the internet really was disturbing.

Previous films have proven that there's drama to be had from journalists uncovering the truth; a seminal example would be the 1976 classic All the President's Men, starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. And meaning no disrespect to Cumberbatch and Brühl, they're not Redford and Hoffman. That's not to say that they don't have a good old stab at it, as does director Bill Condon.

Although it all takes place in the pseudo sexy cyber world, and their story is really quite incredible, Julian Assange is hardly the stuff of heroes. There's just no getting away from the fact that there's something more than a little creepy about him. And as Cumberbatch goes for a bit of truth telling in his portrayal of him, that creepiness gets magnified on the screen.

And when Condon isn't really trying his best to make the internet really hip and cool visually, he's attempting to create a believable and honest relationship between Assange and Berg, but try as he might, there's is not one for a buddy flick. It's awkward and ambiguous in equal measures, and is certainly not helped by the fact that Assange comes across as the geek Terminator, come from the future, devoid of any social skills. It goes beyond the point of him being dislikeable and more in the area of general irritation.

Assange had nothing to do with this project, even turning down a meet with Cumberbatch. He probably did the right thing. The truth is, Alex Gibney's 2013 documentary We Steal Secrets: the Story of WikiLeaks gives a far better account of the history of the website, its founders and the global stir they caused.

Condon gets to grips with the visual element, making a film about geeks on the internet visually swish, but fails to deliver on the drama side of things, making a go on Angry Birds a far more exciting prospect. But if you can't do documentaries, then this version of events make for a credible second best.