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alobearLast night, we ran our now-virtual political film night, and watched Red Joan, 'starring' Judi Dench as a woman who was recruited to pass secrets about nuclear fission experiments to the Russians in the 1940s, and wasn't caught until she was in her late 80s.
Judi Dench inhabited the role brilliantly in the few scenes of the framing narrative, where Joan was apprehended by police and interrogated.
However, most of the film was taken up by flashbacks to her time at Cambridge, her friendships with the people who would recruit her, her job as part of the Tube Alloys fission project, and her eventual passing of information to Russia.
It was a well constructed film, and Sophie Cookson did an excellent job of showing Joan's emotional journey, conflicting loyalties, and idealism. I particularly liked the fact that it was clearly demonstrated to be her idealism that prompted her passing of the information, and not her infatuation with Leo, one of the Russian agents. How credible this was as motivation, I don't know - but it was good that the character was given agency and impetus outside of her romantic entanglements.
Overall, I enjoyed the film and would recommend it.
Judi Dench inhabited the role brilliantly in the few scenes of the framing narrative, where Joan was apprehended by police and interrogated.
However, most of the film was taken up by flashbacks to her time at Cambridge, her friendships with the people who would recruit her, her job as part of the Tube Alloys fission project, and her eventual passing of information to Russia.
It was a well constructed film, and Sophie Cookson did an excellent job of showing Joan's emotional journey, conflicting loyalties, and idealism. I particularly liked the fact that it was clearly demonstrated to be her idealism that prompted her passing of the information, and not her infatuation with Leo, one of the Russian agents. How credible this was as motivation, I don't know - but it was good that the character was given agency and impetus outside of her romantic entanglements.
Overall, I enjoyed the film and would recommend it.
