informative

Rating: 6/10 (31 August 2017)

It's 2013. Edward Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is holed up with Glenn Greenwald (Zachary Quinto) and Laura Poitras (Melissa Leo) in a HongKong hotel room. They convince Guardian editor Ewen MacAskill (Tom Wilkinson) to print sensitive documents stolen by Snowden that implicates the US government in the widespread spying on the American public. Snowden was discharged from the military for medical reasons. He was an Ayn Rand loving Republican who served in the CIA. The highly skilled programmer has a long winding successful career but the unchecked intrusion starts to concern him. His stress affects his relationship with liberal girlfriend Lindsay Mills (Shailene Woodley). Eventually, he copied the files and smuggled them out of NSA.
There are some good information but Oliver Stone fails to make me root for Snowden no matter how hard he tries. And he tries very hard. JGL creates a naive true-believer who grows to hate the corruption of his work. Obviously, Stone has a point of view and is pushing a narrative from Snowden's side. I don't have a problem with that but he has to recruit my sympathies. In the end, a couple of his arguments rang hollow. JGL's mimicry of Snowden does not help. He has a flat speaking voice with some minor autistic tendencies. It's not like the general public knows his voice so it's not really necessary. The information is good but public affairs have overtaken his story. It's almost quaint at this point.