Review: Snowden

The tale of Edward Snowden - whistleblower, patriot, traitor, all or none of the above - would seem in Oliver Stone's conspiratorial, left-wing wheelhouse. Yet Snowden seems less an Oliver Stone film than a facsimile of one, tranquilising instead of galvanising, focused yet shapeless, with a passionate anger that diffuses rather than congeals.

The film begins in Hong Kong in 2013 as Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) sequesters himself in a hotel room with documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras (Melissa Leo) and journalists Glenn Greenwald (Zachary Quinto) and Ewan MacAskill (Tom Wilkinson). The purpose of the meeting is for Snowden to present them with the concrete evidence of the American government's massive surveillance of its citizens, but it also serves as a framing device for the extended flashbacks that depict Snowden's trajectory from conservative brainiac to concerned crusader.

"There are other ways to serve your country," he is told when an injury derails him from being in the United States Army Reserve. Inspired to join as a result of 9/11, Snowden instead funnels his patriotism into working for the CIA, where his skills in creating covert communications systems impresses his soon-to-be mentor Corbin O'Brian (Rhys Ifans). Snowden may not be able to fight on the battlefield, but he is the perfect soldier for a war that takes place in cyberspace. His rise is swift but so is his growing unease with the extent of the government's infringement on its citizens' freedoms. The powers-that-be may proclaim that these Orwellian methods are for the country's protection against potential terrorist threats, but Snowden comes to realise that it may be more about maintaining and enhancing the country's supremacy.

In the midst of all this, Stone drops in Lindsay Mills (Shailene Woodley), a photographer whom Snowden meets on an online dating site and whose liberal political views often clash with his own. Their romance, mostly imperiled by his paranoia and secrecy, can border on the cringeworthy. "Tastes like liberal," he notes after their first kiss. Their sex scene - with Snowden anxious that their lovemaking is being observed via a dormant laptop camera - quicksands into the ludicrous but at least Stone is letting his freak flag fly.

The film could have used more of that unhinged unpredictability. This is the most straightforward Stone has been; he seems intent on sticking with the facts of Snowden's story to the detriment of the narrative. Stone's films have always had a prismatic elasticity - a willingness to warp fact and fiction, supposition and reality - that works in communion with his visual razzle-dazzle. Snowden is watchable, but one is always looking at the periphery for something more riveting around the corner. For example, would Snowden have been engrossing had Stone taken an All the President's Men approach to his protagonist? More than likely. Gordon-Levitt's excellent performance aside, the least interesting element of Snowden is Snowden himself.

As per usual, Stone underserves much of his large cast of talented actors. Leo and Wilkinson mostly disappear into the scenery; Quinto is adrift and goes a bit over-the-top to compensate; Ifans does well as the dour O'Brian, but the character is a barely a sketch. Woodley, freed from Divergent duties, rouses herself from her usual somnambulance to deliver a warm and vibrant portrayal before being relegated to the usual girlfriend tropes of being alternately supportive and harping. Nicolas Cage - appearing as a sort of gatekeeper to equipment like the Enigma machine, which seems embryonic in comparison to the computers in use today - makes us both miss him and more appreciative of his absence.

Snowden

Directed by: Oliver Stone

Written by: Kieran Fitzgerald, Oliver Stone; based on The Snowden Files by Luke Harding and Time of the Octopus by Anatoly Kucherena

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Tom Wilkinson, Zachary Quinto, Rhys Ifans, Timothy Olyphant, Ben Schnetzer, Scott Eastwood, Logan Marshall-Green, Joely Richardson, Keith Stanfield, Nicolas Cage