Film Review: Red Joan

Director: Trevor Nunn

Starring: Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Stephen Campbell

Running time:101 mins

Red Joan is based on the life of Joan Stanley, from her 1930s Cambridge days as a student, until her arrest for passing classified scientific information to the Soviet Union. Her motives are explored through the course of the film, reaching a crescendo as she attempts to justify her actions to the authorities and her barrister son. Inspiration was taken from the novel by Jenny Rooney which was based on the real life story of Melita Norwood, outed as a spy by the security services in 1999.  

The film opens with dreary shots of a tweedy, frumpy Joan (Dench) tending her garden anonymously in the London suburbs.  This rather grey, stodgy characterisation of older Joan is sustained throughout the film; her presentation is not that of an engaging woman who pricks our sympathy or indeed understanding. There are occasional moments of interest, for example, when Joan is arrested by the security services for no less than twenty seven breaches of the official secrets act in providing the Soviet Union with classified scientific information relating to the development of the atomic bomb. However, these moments are rare and our interest in the older Joan is limited. Even the raunchy love scenes between the younger Joan and Leo, her handsome Socialist beau, and later between herself and her then married boss, fail to raise either empathy or interest. One of the problems perhaps is the lack of development of the character of older Joan. Her screen time is limited, her younger version dominating the film. Why would it not? Her past is far more interesting and significant. The film’s form constitutes constant flipping between the past and present to reflect the chronology of Joan’s life. Older Joan appears to enter a fugue state as she recalls memories and it is not an entirely convincing cinematic tool seeming unnecessarily contrived.    

Young Joan, a brilliant physicist is admitted to Cambridge in the late 1930s and her story is developed against a background of socialism, the Spanish Civil war and prejudice against women in an almost exclusively male society. At one point, Sonya (Srbova) her sophisticated, all knowing friend, suggests that their spying will unnoticed because of their gender; how very pertinent and ironic. Older Joan’s sartorial affection for hand knitted cardigans and tailored skirt was clearly engendered in her Cambridge days where one assumes they were de rigeur! Sonya gets to wear the mink coat of course! In a spot of visual symbolism, Joan finally gets to divest herself of her usual attire and wear a white laboratory coat, just like the male scientists, signifying her ascent into academia.     

Joan’s initial naivity and entrapment into spying by Leo and Sonya is all too predictable and frankly frustrating. She allows herself to be led into the realms of socialism simply because she is seduced by the possibilities of an alternative, glamorous lifestyle offered by Sonya and a sexual encounter with Leo. It is only at the end of the film when we are informed of the full and cruel extent of their deceit. However, Joan is forced to develop a survival strategy of her own. She is shown to have become well- rehearsed in the spying game after all, this is the woman capable of operating a Minox camera. Joan is prepared to compromise a close friend using his homosexuality as a threat if he fails to assist her escape from the country. 

The cinematography dwells largely on ubiquitous roof shots of the Cambridge colleges to maybe to remind the audience of the academic importance of this research and her disloyalty to her country.  There are also a couple of interesting shots of a naval convoy making its way to Canada which certainly has a resonance of the original black and white wartime films even down to the lighting of cigarettes on deck in the dusk; one can almost hear the pings of the depth chargers! Also, spot Joan on a train: very Agatha Christie!  

The film does attempt some gravitas posing questions of patriotism and idealism, love and deception, and duty to one’s country and one’s family. It also attempts to lay out how the political climate in the 1930s/40s was in flux and how changing loyalties to countries made for lack of clarity in one’s own loyalties. The acting and cinematography were good, and the story line was potentially gripping but, in my opinion, the film failed to deliver anything of particular interest.  

Did you know? Trevor Nunn was the director of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1968 to 1986, during which time Judi Dench was also a member 

Red Joan is screening at Broadway Cinema until Tuesday 30 April