SNOWDEN

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3 stars
There are plenty of ways to serve your country.” Dramatising the events of whistle-blower Edward Snowden’s (in)famous leak of government documents should be the stuff of a John Le Carre novel, complete with car-chases and dangerously willowy women.
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The reality of Snowden is much more 9-5.

Where events depart from Laura Poitras’s chillingly excellent documentary Citizenfour is in the back-story. Director Oliver Stone (here is a perfect match for his stick-it-to-the-man style) with co-writer Kieran Fitzgerald (The Homesman) flesh out Snowden’s upbringing and education, everything that took him from died-in-the-wool blue-blood to the point where he’d hand over thousands of classified documents to The Guardian newspaper. Along the way he meets girlfriend Lindsay (Shailene Woodley) whose liberalism fights his neo-con upbringing and wins. “You don’t have to agree with your politicians to be a patriot.”

Being an Oliver Stone film (W and Savages), Snowden is inclined to wear not just its heart but its whole being on its sleeve. There’s no doubting the director’s adoration for his subject, although this enthusiasm robs the film of some conflict. With Snowden the avenging angel, it’s left to the likes of his boss and mentor (Rhys Ifans) to take on the role of demon – shockingly over wrought in glaring close up. That said, such characters help energise the story in ways that the rather phlegmatic Snowden can’t. A nervous hero of free speech he may be, but a charismatic super hero he aint. Played with conviction by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (the physicality and mannerisms are spot on), Stone turns to the outside to generate some heat.

Unfortunately, he never really finds it. Lacking that gutsy, ball-swinging bravado of earlier political thrillers like Salvador or even JFK, Stone seems unable to reach those oh-my-god moments of Citizenfour, even though that same narrative thread locks down the movie (Melissa Leo as Poitras films Snowden in the present with Tom Wilkinson as The Guardian’s go-to guy. There’s a looseness to Stone’s polemic that, always engaging, is never riveting. It doesn’t help that he indulges his story well beyond the two hour mark and begins to outstay his welcome. It’s a shame that the once epic director, detailing Snowden’s epic actions is unable to find the epic in this film.

// COLIN FRASER

Previewed at the Verona Cinema, Sydney, on 25 August 2016.
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STARRING
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Shailene Woodley
Tom Wilkinson
Rhys Ifans


DIRECTOR
Oliver Stone

SCREENWRITER
Oliver Stone

COUNTRY

USA

CLASSIFICATION
M

RUNTIME
140 minutes

AUSTRALIAN
RELEASE DATE
September 22, 2016
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Snowden (2016) on IMDb
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