Snowden, film review: This geeky wizard fails to thrill

With a bit more care, Snowden the film could have been another Born on the Fourth of July, says Charlotte O'Sullivan, but as it stands, it may wind up damaging his image. 
Charlotte O'Sullivan9 December 2016

Oliver Stone has found a real-life story that encompasses corruption, sexual paranoia, epilepsy and a truly great escape. He’s also attracted a fine cast (including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Nicolas Cage, Rhys Ifans and Ben Schnetzer) and an edgy crew (British cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle shot Festen and Lars von Trier’s Antichrist). What happened? Stone’s film is about as suspenseful as a trip to Ikea.

The script interweaves two narratives about the NSA whistle-blower. One casts Snowden (Gordon-Levitt, right, doing his best) as a sort of geeky but gifted Harry Potter type, who joins the CIA because he wants to protect his country, falls in love with a liberal, Lindsay (Woodley) and, all too soon, becomes disillusioned with the US government’s barely legal surveillance techniques. The other narrative begins with a jaunty Snowden meeting Laura Poitras (Melissa Leo) in a Hong Kong hotel and allowing her to film him as the world digests his revelations.

If you’ve seen Poitras’s devastating documentary, Citizen Four, you already know what happened in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, Skype interviews with The Guardian’s Janine Gibson (Joely Richardson) confirm that journalists have to think on their feet. Sorry but that ain’t news.

Meanwhile, Snowden’s relationship with Lindsay makes for the dreariest kind of melodrama (unless you enjoy watching passive-aggressive yuppies row their way around the globe) and his mentors at the CIA are impossible to take seriously (poor Ifans, poor Cage). The only plausible individuals are the sweetly charming bods at the NSA, who seem to share Snowden’s uneasy excitement at being at the heart of an often bloody cyber war. When Snowden says goodbye to these guys (and skips off with the smoking gun) it’s genuinely involving.

With a bit more care, Snowden the film could have been another Born on the Fourth of July, an atmospheric thumbs-up for an alt-patriot who put his neck on the line. As it stands, it may wind up damaging his image.

Age 33, the real Snowden has an uncertain future. Now, on top of everything else, he’s been made to look like yesterday’s man.

Cert 15, 134 mins

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