However, she's also defined largely by her relationship with various men, and she's often treated with disdain/scorn by male characters. Mrs Stanley herself seems every bit the sweet, harmless old lady her family and neighbours take her to be. As the older Joan explains, her political attitudes had developed when Sonya and Leo suffered discrimination because of their views and a tragedy occurred, but it was not until Hiroshima that she decided to transmit atomic secrets to the Soviets. The story of Joan Stanley, who was exposed as the K.G.B. The materials that Norwood betrayed to the USSR hastened the pace at which the Soviets developed nuclear bomb … At least Kristina Hetherington’s editing keeps the back-and-forth chronology smooth, though George Fenton’s score is fairly generic.Dench is of course the anchor of the “modern” footage, which according to the script began after young Joan’s treason was finally revealed in 2000 as a result of the death of Mitchell. Unfortunately, in “Red Joan,” the combination of Dame Judi Dench and Trevor Nunn results in something not appreciably better than a mid-level Masterpiece Theatre episode. During the war, Joan went to university and became an esteemed scientist herself, eventually joining the top secret team that was charged with developing Britain’s own bomb with the help of the Canadians. They saw her as their dupe, just as the police who question her believe she must have been young, silly, and easily led, but there is more to Joan’s story and to the actions she chose. Her life is changed when she is befriended by Sonya (Tereza Srbova), a glamorous, enigmatic fellow student of Russian background. Norwood worked at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association as a secretary and supplied the Soviet Union with nuclear secrets. Eventually she will admit her guilt, asking her incredulous son Nick (Ben Miles), a barrister, to represent her in court if necessary.Back in the late thirties, mousy Joan (played by Sophie Cookson) was studying science at Cambridge when she met flamboyant Sonya (Tereza Srbova), a Jewish refugee from Germany, and her handsome cousin Leo (Tom Hughes), with family roots in Russia. Having already seen the outcome in the older Joan Stanley’s arrest, we await the explanation of how she came to leak secret information to the KGB, and of her reasons, as the Second World War and the political disturbance that follows impacts on all the characters in different ways. Their influence gradually takes on a more sinister tone when the darker side of the Soviet system and of international politics shows itself.Screenwriter Lindsay Shapero wisely alters the plotline of the novel slightly, holding back details of Joan’s thoughts and intentions. Their relationship is consistently disappointing to her, as the politically zealous Leo avoids emotional commitment on principle; actress Sophie Cookson, who plays the young Joan, remarked that they are forever at odds in that Joan “acted mainly despite politics,” while Leo was “all politics.” After graduation, she takes a job with a research firm involved in the early stages of developing atomic weapons. At one such meeting, Joan meets Sonya’s cousin, Leo (Tom Hughes), and becomes infatuated with him. The actress plays fluttery and distracted very well, as you’d expect, but the part doesn’t give her the opportunity to exhibit much range. 's longest-serving British spy.
This approach makes for greater suspense, and also allows Joan Stanley to clearly speak for herself only at the film’s conclusion. Without thinking about it much, she’d become a part of a communist cell, which also included slick William Mitchell (Freddie Gaminara).With the outbreak of World War II, Joan, with her background in physics, became an assistant to Professor Max Davies (Stephen Campbell Moore), a major figure in a British project to develop an atomic bomb. A major cause of the failure is the stiffness of the flashbacks, which under Nunn’s lumpish direction are generally played with too much of the stiff-upper-lip British style that’s become a stale tradition. Red Joan is based on a novel of the same name written by Jennie Rooney, which was itself inspired by the life of Melita Norwood. Red Joan is an adaptation of the very readable novel of the same name by Jennie Rooney, which was in turn inspired by the life of Melita Norwood, a British woman who was discovered at age 87 to have been a spy for the KGB many years earlier. There’s a potentially rich story in Melita Norwood’s life that is barely tapped in this tepid refashioning of it. Her story was novelized by Jennie Rooney, and now that fictionalized version serves as the basis for Lindsay Shapero’s screenplay. With Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Stephen Campbell Moore, Tom Hughes. The rather meek and insecure Joan is impressed by Sonya’s sophistication and self-confidence, and intrigued by her inscrutable manner and avant-garde thinking, and makes no objection when Sonya takes her to meetings of young Communists and includes her in their discussions. She becomes somewhat dominated by the convictions and political purposes of her two friends, who kindly but firmly dismiss what they regard as Joan’s sentimental notions or middle-class morality, or else take advantage of her feelings in order to manipulate her. Under their influence, she attended anti-fascist meetings and demonstrations to take action in Spain; she also took up romantically with Leo. The film premiered at TIFF, where its director, Trevor Nunn, along with three cast members, made themselves available for questions from the audience following the screening, providing a great deal of insight into the making of the film.The story opens in the year 2000, with an elderly widow and mother, Joan Stanley, being unexpectedly arrested for espionage.