A film that neatly complements the documentary "Citizenfour"

Rating: Null/10 (2 August 2017)

The eponymous Edward Snowden is, of course, the former CIA contractor who in 2013 revealed to the world the massive and unauthorised surveillance operations carried out by American (and British) intelligence services.
Documentary maker Laura Poitras was at the Hong Kong hotel when he passed on his information to the "Guardian" newspaper and this meeting was the centre-piece of her work "Citizenfour" (2014). In "Snowden" (2016), Poitras herself is one of the many real-life characters in Oliver Stone's film which opens in that hotel room but constantly flashes back to show how Snowden learned these secrets and came to the decision that he had to expose them. The two works complement each other neatly.
The casting for the Stone movie is well-done. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Snowden and, as well as having a passing physical resemblance to his subject, portrays convincingly the nerdiness, intelligence, passion and anxiety of the mother of all whistle-blowers.
Snowden's partner Lindsay Mills, who barely appeared in "Citizenfour", has a major role here and Shailene Woodley is excellent as the understanding and loyal girlfriend. Gay actor Zachary Quinto plays gay investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald. Other familiar faces include Nicolas Cage and – at least for UK viewers – British actors Tom Wilkinson, Rhys Ifans and Joely Richardson.
Only occasionally does Stone become carried away with overly-dramatic visuals. For the most part, this is a balanced and informative narrative, with good use of location shooting and some high- tech sets, in a film that underlines both the immense threat to our civil liberties and the huge price to be paid for exposing that threat.