BEFORE: After this one, I'm back on World War II films, which brings me right up to (but not including) Memorial Day. That's going to have to do, I'm not shifting things around again.
Judi Dench carries over from "Artemis Fowl".
THE PLOT: The story of Joan Stanley, who was exposed as the K.G.B.'s longest-serving British spy.
AFTER: Actually, this IS a World War II film - so I'm on topic a day earlier than I expected - I figured this one would be more about the Cold War. Geez, maybe I should have added one more Judi Dench film in here, then I would be watching a WW2 film on Memorial Day itself - ah, but then I'd have to either double-up or cut something else, and I just got the chain worked out the way I wanted it...so I can hit Father's Day right on the button. June's going to be a busy month, I probably can't squeeze an extra film in there somewhere and still make it on time. July, on the other hand, I can't even tell how busy I'm going to be in July, it's possible the theater may shut down for the whole month so they can fix the roof. (Why they didn't fix the roof while the theater was closed for the pandemic, I can't quite understand.)
Anyway, the movie "Red Joan" is based on the novel "Red Joan" by Jennie Rooney, and that novel was based on the life of Melita Norwood, who worked as a secretary for the British government and supplied the Soviet Union with nuclear secrets. But I guess "Red Melita" isn't quite such a catchy title, so "Red Joan" it is. The lead character in the film is Joan Smith, a quite obvious fake stand-in name - and most of the film is told in flashback, much like the film "Iris", which I watched in February, which also starred Judi Dench in the older framing sequences.
Joan falls in with a bad crowd while studying physics at Cambridge - yep, Communists, but at least it wasn't puppeteers. She's befriended by Sonya and Leo, who claim to be Jewish and also claim to be cousins, but are they really those things? Joan is pretty naive at this point, she may not have realized there aren't a lot of Jewish German Communists out there. It seems like Sonya and Leo can be whatever they want to be when they're making friends who might become important contacts in the coming war. Joan falls in love with Leo, and probably a bit in love with Sonya, too, only that wasn't as culturally acceptable back then.
When Joan gets work at the secret project working to build an atomic bomb for Britain, Leo tries to recruit her to share nuclear secrets, but that's when she ends her relationship with him, and instead she starts having an affair with her very married boss, Professor Max Davis. It's possible he just wanted to connect with a woman who also understood how a nuclear weapon works - he loves Joan for her brain, while the other scientists wonder how a woman could possibly understand such a thing. But because of Britain's strict laws, Max is unable to divorce his wife, even while he and Joan are growing closer together while they travel to Canada to do their research.
The plan all along was to develop the atomic bomb and then NOT use it, because the theory was that the very existence of such a destructive weapon would be its own deterrent, nobody would dare use it and kill thousands of people, but just having it could force the other side to surrender. But as we all know, that's not what happened, Truman approved the use of the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which had previously been unthinkable, or so everyone thought. What "Joan" did by giving the nuclear secrets to Russia was to try and level the playing field, the theory once again being that if both sides HAD the technology, nobody would use it, because of mutually assured destruction - and that theory has held up for over 75 years.
Joan finds out that Leo and Sonya weren't cousins, but lovers, and then after the Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb in 1949, the leak is traced back to Max's office and he's arrested - but Joan blackmails a diplomat to get Max out of prison, and they head for Australia together, change their last names and have a child, who grows up to become a barrister (attorney).
When Joan is arrested in 2000, an old lady charged with espionage, it's probably hardest on her son, who at first defends her in court, but then basically finds out his whole life is a lie, his aged mother was a Russian spy, and even his last name is made up. (But, if you think about it, aren't all last names made up at some point?). Still, it must be weird to think that your own mother betrayed her country, even if she had a darn good reason at the time, she was trying to stop nuclear weapons from being used again, by maintaining the balance of power - that's what she said, anyway.
Anyway, it always looks bad when the police arrest an 80-year-old woman - at that point, even if that woman was a spy it's probably better to give her a pass. Who wants to see a British granny doing a perp walk?
Also starring Sophie Cookson (last seen in "Greed"), Nina Sosanya (last seen in "Love Actually"), Tom Hughes (last seen in "About Time"), Tereza Srbova (last seen in "Eastern Promises"), Stephen Campbell Moore (last seen in "How to Talk to Girls at Parties"), Ben Miles (last seen in "The Catcher Was a Spy"), Freddie Gaminara, Laurence Spellman (last seen in "Ready Player One"), Stephen Boxer (last seen in "Carrington"), Robin Soans (last seen in "Victoria & Abdul"), Kevin Fuller, Simon Ludders, Ciaran Owens, Adrian Wheeler, Steven Hillman, Phill Langhorne, Ed Birch (last seen in "Their Finest"), Debbie Chazen, Raymond Coulthard (last seen in "The Muppet Christmas Carol"), Stuart Milligan (last seen in "Wonder Woman 1984"), Richard Teverson.
RATING: 4 out of 10 inquisitive tabloid journalists
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