Red Joan 2018

     This film based on a novel written by Jennie Rooney.  It is the story of English-born Joan Stanley, she was exposed as the K.G.B.’s longest serving British spy.  Joan was a Soviet and Communist Party sympathizer.  She worked as a British government civil servant and she is recruited by the K.G.B. in the mid 1930’s.  She transfers nuclear bomb secrets to Soviet Russia.  The information she sends enables them to keep up with the west in the development of atomic weapons.  She remained undetected as a spy for over a half a century!!
     This is a fact-based drama and there are scenes that deal with suicide, language is infrequent and mild, there are some sex scenes but sexuality is muted.  Many characters smoke and that is accurate for this era.  They also drink at dinner in pubs and the main character is a very strong principled woman.  Many viewers may disagree with her reasons for her actions.  There are themes of compassion and courage but what she did is very unpopular in democratic countries.   4* (I really liked this movie)
 
101 min, Bio directed by Trevor Nunn and written by Lindsay Shapero with Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Stephen Campbell Moore, Nina Sosanya, Laurence Spellman, Nicola Sloane, Spophie Cookson, Tereza Srbova, Freddie Gaminara, Raj Swamy, Tom Hughes, Adrian Wheeler, Ben Miles, Lulu Meissner, Phill Langhorne, Mike Sykes.

Note:  Imdb 6.3 out of 10 with 6,570 views, Rotten Tomatoes 30% with 143 critics 57% with 196 ratings, Roger Ebert 3* Tomris Laffly, The Guardian 2* out of 5* Pamela Hutchinson, Metacritic 45 out of 100 with 22 critics (7 positive 13 mixed, 2 negative) 4.4 out of 10 with 20 ratings (3 positive, 12 mixed, 5 negative), Amazon 4.1* out of 5* with 743 reviews, Letterboxd 2.8* out of 5*, Common Sense Media Joyce Slaton age 13+, 2* positive, 2* role models, 3* violence, 2* sex, 2* language, 2* drinking, drugs & smoking. 

Special Note:  Filmed in Cambridgeshire, Cambridge, London, South East UK and HMP Wormwood Scrubs, London, United Kingdom.  Loosely based on the real-life case of Civil Servant Melita Norwood (1912-2005).  She passed information between the 1940’s and 50’s.  It wasn’t discovered until 1992 and the Ministry of Defense declined to prosecute an 80-year-old woman.  Norwood has stated she did not receive money for her work.  She did it to help prevent the defeat of a system that had given ordinary people food, fares, education and health service that they could afford.  The Manhattan Project is mentioned and this was a project of research and development during WWII in the US that produced the first nuclear weapons.