I think I detect an agenda...

Rating: 7/10 (16 May 2018)

Edward Snowden works for various clandestine elements of the US government machinery. While writing software to shut down Chinese hackers, he discovers that the US is carrying out illegal surveillance over billions of emails from US citizens. What should he do?
Well, we know what he did, he blew the whistle. And despite the fact that he was proved right, and measures were taken to stop the illegal collection of uncountable emails, his copybook is so comprehensively blotted that he remains an exile in Moscow.
Oliver Stone takes things very seriously indeed, and this can sometimes result in two things: one, his personal agenda overtakes the story he is telling and, two, the issues he is raising overpower the entertainment value of the movie. Both these flaws are at work here.
Stone clearly regards Snowden as a hero, a martyr. Maybe this is justified, but it is a little difficult to tell because Stone only ever gives us one side of the picture.
And, unforgiveably, the movie is somewhat on the dull side. Snowden's story is interesting and has built in suspense but, at 134 minutes, the telling of it drags noticeably at times.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt gives a good performance as Snowden, as does Shailene Woodley as his girlfriend Lindsay Mills. For me, the best performance was Rhys Ifans, almost unrecognisable as CIA Deputy Director Corbin O'Brian.
I came out of this better informed I think, though it was difficult to tell how much of what I was being fed was fact, and how much was Stone's overheated agenda at work. But I can't honestly say I was entertained that much.