Poitras herself appears in the movie, portrayed by Melissa Leo. Here, she and Guardian reporter Glen Greenwald (Zachary Quinto) interview Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in Hong Kong. Snowden tells them how he came to work for the US Government's surveillance programs. His government work changes him from eager patriot to disillusioned contractor. So now, Snowden has decided to tell the truth.
Greenwald and fellow Guardian reporter Ewen MacAskill (Tom Wilkinson) are ready to send the story to print. But their editor is reluctant to do so. Meanwhile, there's the real possibility that the US Government already after Snowden will come for the reporters. They'll have to keep deep undercover to break the story.
Stone and Kieran Fitzgerald's screenplay melds together Luke Harding's book The Snowden Files and the roman-a-clef, Time of the Octopus, by Snowden's lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena. The story jumps back-and-forth in time from Snowden's Hong Kong interviews to his early years in the Government. This makes the 138 minutes a bit slow especially since a few scenes look like the end but are not. The central argument may boil down to "surveillance is wrong," but the intricacies of surveillance may give you something to think about.
Levitt was a good choice for Snowden. He looks and sounds the part of a withdrawn computer nerd. He gets to open up as the movie goes on and he becomes a conflicted human. We get to understand his problems despite any existing viewpoints. The last scene is made more poignant when Levitt is replaced midway by the real Snowden. Amongst the supporting cast, Shailene Woodley was great as Snowden's girlfriend, Lindsey, and Nicolas Cage was welcome as his mentor, Hank Forrester.
Snowden makes for a fine modern history lesson. Or it may already confirm what its audience already knows. It all depends on how much you know about the story. I thought it did its best to chronicle the humanity behind its subject. That reason makes it good for a recommendation.
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