Considering its director and its topical true-life subject matter, Snowden should be a provocative and politically charged espionage thriller that digs behind the headlines to shed new light on controversy.
However, the latest from director Oliver Stone only intermittently matches those expectations, giving a rather conventional biopic treatment to its polarizing protagonist that tries to position itself as a cautionary tale in today’s high-tech culture of connectivity.
It begins in a Hong Kong hotel room, where Edward Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) relays to documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras (Melissa Leo) and two other journalists his rationale for hacking into and leaking thousands of pages of classified National Security Administration documents through a British news agency.
From there, Snowden’s story is recounted in mostly chronological fashion, charting a political transformation that began with a military career cut short by bad legs, before transitioning to security contractor positions with the CIA and NSA, where he became a prodigy in his 20s before questioning the government’s widespread bipartisan overreach in its surveillance programs.
The film won’t fill in many gaps for those who’ve seen Citizenfour (2014), the Oscar-winning documentary that essentially consists of Poitras’ extended interview with Snowden. The most intriguing sequences in this dramatized effort take place inside that same hotel room.
Stone is no stranger to paranoid conspiracy theories and cynicism about government corruption. But where JFK was galvanizing, Snowden is lumbering. In particular, the first half is more tedious than suspenseful, as the screenplay by Stone and Kieran Fitzgerald (The Homesman) — based in part on two books — tends to dwell on trivial details that provide minimal impact, especially regarding Snowden’s relationship with his longtime girlfriend (Shailene Woodley).
Eventually, however, Stone gets around to some juicy stuff, such as document classification, the treatment of whistleblowers, and Snowden’s contention that the government’s surveillance techniques are motivated more by economic supremacy than counterterrorism concerns, Gordon-Levitt again showcases his versatility in a performance that captures more than just the voice and mannerisms of his subject, but also his inner turmoil and psychological instability.
Is Snowden a hero or a traitor? That’s the complex question at the heart of the film, of course, and Snowden is only marginally persuasive in painting him as a martyr and exiled patriot. The result feels more like a subdued interpretation of recent history that misses an opportunity to become something more incendiary, especially during an election year.
