Wait for DVD, Blu-Ray, or Streaming
Based loosely on a true story, an intriguing moment in history squanders its cast on a flat telling.
Melita Norwood may not be a household name, but her backstory is the stuff that spy fiction is made of. Which probably explains why director and theatre veteran Trevor Nunn (Lady Jane) has turned it into a film. The arrival of the British media on the Bexleyheath doorstep of the then 87-year-old Norwood in 1999 brought the former civil servant to the world’s attention, so it’s a shame that the telling of that tale isn’t as gripping as its inspiration.
RED JOAN opens in May 2000 with the arrest and interrogation of Joan Stanley (Judi Dench), a character very loosely based on Norwood. The elderly Joan recounts her past as a young physics student at Cambridge (depicted by Sophie Cookson) where she is drawn into Communism and radical left politics by friends Sonya (Tereza Srbova) and sometimes lover Leo (Tom Hughes). As her psychics knowledge gets her into top secret projects under the brilliant Max (Stephen Campbell Moore), her allegiances are tested.
When you hire Dame Judith Olivia Dench for a motion picture, you should make damn sure you use every inch of her talents. While the acclaimed actress is only used for the narrative framing device, most of her appearances are Nunn cutting to Dench looking tired in an interrogation room. Cookson, who is most recognisable from her supporting role in the Kingsman series, carries most the film.
While the trappings are a spy thriller, the core of the story is a love triangle between Joan, Leo, and Max. While one can’t begrudge screenwriter Lindsay Shapero for this narrative shortcut, it is disappointing that a promising story of a young woman caught between science and country is represented by the two men in her life. It robs her of significant accomplishments, not least of which was a young female scientist being involved in one of the most classified projects of the Second World War.
RED JOAN is ultimate a portrait of someone who had a misguided sense of moral correctness. When caught, Joan Stanley argues that she only wanted Russia to be on an equal scientific footing with the West to avert further atrocities like the Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yet it’s a drably told tale, one that misuses its otherwise excellent cast, and rarely gives us a reason to pin our allegiances one way or the other.
2019 | UK | DIR: Trevor Nunn | WRITER: Lindsay Shapero | CAST: Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Stephen Campbell Moore, Tom Hughes | DISTRIBUTOR: Transmission (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 109 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 5 June 2019 (AUS)
