Snowden

Almost every year there's a movie that has all of the elements of a prestige picture that fails to find an audience or connect with critics. Key elements usually include, an important story (real or ficntional), a high profile director, and timely themes. So hearing that Oliver Stone, a man famous for making movies about government distrust, was making an Edward Snowden biopic, when hacked information and privacy is on the tip of everyone's tongue, with a lead performance from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, this sounded like Oscar territory. And yet it wasn't. I try to find out why in today's review.

Meeting in a Hong Kong hotel with a select number of journalists, Edward Snowden is on the story of year: he has proof that the government is spying on the entire world with almost no safeguards. As he explains his story the audience discovers how Snowden went from a die-hard patriot, to a disenchanted hacker turned whistle blower.

To a large extent this is a standard Oliver Stone movie which it's lead character following similar, though less dramatic experience, as Charlie Sheen's Christ Taylor in Platoon. He begins as a hard-line conservative looking to save the United States from terrorism, who quickly finds that the morally questionable actions of the C.I.A. and eventually the misuse of his own programs in surveillance go against his personal morals. This baseline is actually quite important to the film because it not only presents Snowden as a reluctant whistleblower, but also shows that his choice to reveal this information as truly in conflict with he desire to help his country.

If there's one thing this movie gets really right, its demonstrating the internal strain on Snowden as he tries to deal with the dubious nature of his work, without being able to talk about it. If he complains at work he can get in trouble or thrown in jail, but he can't tell his longtime girlfriend about classified information. Add in an illness that is exacerbated by stress and you've got all of the makings of an emotional powder keg.

The arc and Snowden's transition is all pretty effective stuff. Each transition is greeted with a new mentor played by a name actor be it Rhys Ifans as his C.I.A. guru or Timothy Olyphant as a callous office director and we see how Snowden both uncovered and even created some of country's unregulated surveillance programs. I do wish these segments featured more emphasis on Snowden contributions. After a couple of early segments where he's presented as a super hacker, the movie shifts its focus into what Snowden doesn't like about his job and mentions his actual accomplishments in exposition dumps or in passing conversations. He get why he's conflicted but I think for the uninitiated seeing what Snowden did for his country, where many might view him as a traitor, presents a more balanced view.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is quite good as Snowden matching the almost robotic way that his subject talks from time to time, his social awkwardness, and the subtle mannerisms to indicate his disapproval. It's interesting to see an actor go through the spectrum of emotions with someone who isn't known for expressiveness. The rest of cast are all playing effective second fiddles including the aforementioned Ifans and Olyphant. Granted this movie also has the most random insert of Nicolas Cage's career, not because it's not a typical Cage performance, but because he literally shows up for two scene and then the movie flips back to him like he's played a big role in the proceedings. It's strange.

The flaws in the movie are more about what's left out vs. what's kept in. The movie takes a ton of time to development Snowden's relationship with his girlfriend played admirably by Shailene Woodley, but less time on Snowden's post leak life, how he acquired the information, and his impact and legacy. It really feels like the movie is playing catch up in the final twenty minutes which could've been expanded. You could also argue that the movie seems to be under the assumption that the audience already knows what Snowden revealed or why he's important. I suppose that's true for people seeking the movie out in this moment in time, but in an era when online privacy is becoming a bigger concern for ordinary citizens, you'd think this would be explained more thoroughly. People are going to come across this movie down the line and likely have to start doing Google searches to get the full picture.

Effective but likely less so for the uninitiated, Snowden is agreeable familiar territory for Oliver Stone with a great performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. This gets a soft recommendation.