Hacking has a limit

Rating: 6/10 (8 December 2016)

This review of Snowden is spoiler free
*** (3/5)
SOMETIMES IT SEEMS that the phrase "too soon" doesn't apply and doesn't have a proper meaning when it comes to big-screen adaptations of politically charged global scandals. As it wasn't long ago that we got WikiLeaks' name-making Guantanamo Bay files, of Benedict Cumberbatch slipping on an extended Malfoy-esque wig for The Fifth Estate. And also Leonardo DiCaprio has already optioned an unpublished book on Volkswagen's 2015 co2 emissions cover-up. And now – only three years after Edward Snowden's NSA revelations – here comes director Oliver Stone's bold, rather ambitious and surprisingly thrilling relevant biopic of the government analyst-turned-whistle-blower for The Guardian. For years director Oliver Stone now 70 – was a cinematic sleeping giant who used to be known for creating the exceptional over-the-top war pick Platoon, but it seems he had his work cut out for him recently as his last film the not-so thrilling action/crime/thriller Savages seemed to have quite an extended reach as the filming ran away from him while creating that.
In, Snowden we open in 2013, in a hotel in Hong Kong, with journalist Glenn Greenwald (Zachary Quinto) and documentarian Laura Poitras (Melissa Leo) as they nervously await for a special rendezvous with Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who arrives with an all manner of dirty secrets to spill about how he pulled of that superfluous scandal only a few months before. Next, we flashback to 2004, where Snowden is a medically discharged special forces recruit who washes up in the CIA's rather large cyber branch, and an intercut timeline helps thread a link that was much needed between the past and the present, hopping back and forth between Snowden's career and his twitchy current existence, hiding in his hotel room to get away from the people who are constantly chasing him. Though the time-jumps between these timelines may be simple but they are an effective narrative device for showing Snowden's former life as a pro-Dubya patriot – which adds to the emotional story heft of his dubious decision to reveal the Big Brother-ish extent of the US government's spying game. Unfortunately his global tour – encompassing governmental jobs in mainland America, Switzerland, Japan and Hawaii – can occasionally be sadly episodic which is a giant put off for the story as not much happens at the point.
Though its essential stuff as it is just used as foregrounding of his tempestuous relationship with professional photographer girlfriend Lindsay (Shailene Woodley in her best performance ever) acts as a solid narrative spine which manages to keep the story held together and now casts Snowden as an alternative love story, something that's crucially needed for something like this. However it's not like this story is light on sweaty-palmed drama and provocative politics so there is plenty to enjoy. Late on, Stone expertly wrings extensive tension from little more than a loading bar and a hidden SD card. Although, some of the director's illustrative tools are occasionally blunt as there are points when the story goes a little schlocky and seems to run away with itself – as one of Snowden's first epiphanies concerns a supposedly inactive laptop camera filming a Muslim woman removing her traditional veil – his anger at the rapaciousness of post-9/11 surveillance comes out eloquently and is nicely detailed.
To help the film even more Stone's assisted by an in-form starry cast, too. Woodley lights up every scene she is in with electrifying execution, Rhys Ifans sells his look as a quietly sinister father figure to Snowden and finally Gordon-Levitt grows into a performance that initially seems mild mannered as his world is changing around him. The real-life Edward Snowden, (two years younger than Levitt) is still an exile in Russia, and he was consulted heavily and a third act decision to show off this admittedly impressive access seems as rather ill-judged take for the director. In fact, there's a heavily pervading sense that potentially takes interesting avenues(Snowden's self-interest, with the consequences of his international fame) are ignored in favour of an overwhelmingly heroic, almost saintly, character arc. Though the film flags a little and doesn't rein as supreme as other films based on professional hackers (if you can call that a profession) Snowden is a capably delivered thriller that's as powerful as it is pertinent.
VERDICT: Snowden is a bold, ambitious and sometimes risky tale about government agency whistle-blowers that bravely doesn't point out too many names or technically speaking doesn't point too many fingers, and pulls a rather thrilling thriller that's strong powerful enough to be potentially Oscar worthy.
6/10 not so supreme.