“Snowden”

We’ve all been exposed to media coverage of Edward Snowden and his spill of voluminous NSA data and his exposure of the scope of the national surveillance system.

Despite that, I suspect that the average Joe has little idea as to the severity of his actions.  Even after seeing the film I still don’t know!

Joseph Gordon-Levitt shines as the soft spoken computer geek (Snowden) who lands big jobs in the surveillance world despite not having even a high school diploma.  The plot is pretty straightforward and simple and as such pretty boring.  Guy sees intrusion, guy decides to blow whistle, guy blows whistle , Russians take in blower of whistle.

Stone does a respectable job weaving in some back stories and romance but overall there is little real drama at work.

He corrals some major talent to round out the cast to include Timothy Olyphant (Justified), Nicholas Cage, Tom Wilkinson, and Melissa Leo but they do little to lift this film to any degree.

The conclusion is somewhat interesting in that Stone gets the real Snowden on camera.

In the end we are left somewhat confused and torn regarding our view of Snowden.  Is he a traitor as most  of the establishment and military say, or is he a hero who pulled back the curtain on a national disgrace?  Stone obviously believes the latter but time will tell where Edward Snowden lands in history.

I’d wait until this film is televised and you have time to spare.  Don’t rush out to see it.