secret, secrecy


Snowden also begins a love affair with Lindsay Mills (Shailene Woodley), a photographer who is troubled by his secrecy. Stone has rarely been successful with female characters in his movies, and although Woodley is a talented actress, the role is little more than a variant on the stereotypical wife or girlfriend always telling her man to be careful and railing when he shuts her out. Lindsay never blossoms into a full-blooded, distinctive character.
There are a lot of good actors in this movie, but aside from Gordon-Levitt, almost none of them has a chance to etch an indelible character. Many of Stone’s earlier movies, as overheated as they sometimes were, did provide an opportunity for energetic hams like James Woods, Tommy Lee Jones and Woody Harrelson to chew the scenery entertainingly. Leo, Wilkinson and Nicolas Cage have so little to do here that we would never guess they had won awards in other films. In the large cast, Ben Schnetzer (who plays a scruffy colleague of Snowden’s and who also stars in this month’s frat movie, Goat) is almost the only supporting actor who has a chance to get a humorous rhythm going.
Stone’s direction is measured, methodical and totally lacking in the fire and flamboyance that sometimes electrified and sometimes ruined his earlier films. The story moves along without any real sense of urgency or suspense. It may hurt that we know the ending of Snowden’s story, though of course his legacy is still being debated.
Oscar-winning cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle (Slumdog Millionaire) brings some pictorial flair to all the various locations where the story is set. Those who don’t know much about Snowden’s story may still find this movie enlightening, but it never achieves the emotional force that Poitras achieved in her film with the real Snowden front and center. He appears at the very end of this film, and he only reminds us of what the rest of this well-crafted but lackluster opus is missing.