Review of Snowden (2016) by Alexis S — 19 Jan 2017

An outstanding performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Snowden was directed by Oliver Stone and was co-written by the latter and Kieran Fitzgerald. The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Edward Snowden, Melissa Leo as Laura Poitras, Shailene Woodley as Lindsay Mills, Tom Wilkinson as Ewen MacAskill and Zachary Quinto as Glenn Greenwald. This dramatic biographical political thriller tells the story of hacker/hero Edward Snowden, who leaked CIA files concerning the surveillance of unaware US citizens, was then on the run and found safe haven in Russia. The story starts with Snowden being in Hong Kong in a badly lit hotel room, telling his story to documentary creator Poitras and journalist Greenwald. This is then followed by a series of flashbacks displaying Snowden's life, starting from the moment he got thrown out of military training because he had broken his legs, to when he managed to smuggle out the documents.

The main theme of the film is heroism. Snowden had to give up his life and take hard but necessary decisions in order to do what he felt was right when seeing a severe violation of human rights from the side of a governmental institution. Additionally, there is the theme of "love beats (almost) everything", which is obviously closely connected to the difficulties of being a hero. Edward and Lindsay cannot be more different in personality, however, they still fall in love and have a successful relationship together, until the large amount of secrets between them makes them struggle.

Shailene Woodley and Joseph Gordon-Levitt did an excellent job at showing the complex but passionate relationship between two people seemingly almost from two different worlds. The two actors had great chemistry on their side. The performances were generally very strong from all actors involved. Especially outstanding was, in my opinion, the acting of Gordon-Levitt. He did an impressive job at mimicking the body language and facial expressions of the real Snowden and even more so his voice. The typecasting was successfully done, since I had the impression to be witnessing the "real story". Even if Gordon-Levitt's appearance does not completely match Snowden's, his performance transferred the essential overall message of the movie.