Review: Red Joan

Red Joan
Cert: 12A / 101 mins / Dir. Trevor Nunn / Trailer



Oh, ITV called. They said their Sunday night schedules are full for the foreseeable wondered if you might like to try the cinemas instead? Besides, they're probably going to need something to show over a week on the single screen that isn't running back-to-back Avengers…

ARRESTED

So we open circa 2000, with the slightly curmudgeonly Joan (Judi Dench) being arrested on historical spying charges following revelations arising after the death of a government minister. As Joan is interviewed, we see her past as a wartime communist sympathiser unfurl in a series of lengthy flashbacks at Cambridge University and the Ministry of Defence, in which she's played by Sophie Cookson.

Now, since this is all based on a novel which is in turn inspired by an actual case, the immediate pitfall is one of maintaining dramatic tension when the audience could know how it plays out. Joan maintains her innocence throughout, on a moral level at least. But the problem is that the film is called "Red Joan", so we know she did it. To make matters worse the first act tells us how and even why she did it. All that's left for the following hour is a checklist of events which have been telegraphed from the word go.

I know little to nothing of the actual political machinery around and following the Second World War, and even I found this to be simplistic and heavy-handed.

PERSONAL

Dame Judi does quite well for a performance which is essentially a series of very short monologues with people watching. But perhaps crucially, Old Red Joan never actually narrates or even presents the Young Red Joan segements - these are sparked in her memory by facts read to her by the police. As a result, the other half of her performance is essentially reaction shots.

Cookson has more to work with and comes out of the whole thing better, but it's an inescapable fact that she doesn't look like a young Judi Dench (even though her vocal mannerisms are spot on). It's not just a matter of the latter's outstanding career history, she's long since passed the line where she can disappear into a character. No matter how good Judi Dench is, you never forget you're watching Judi Dench™.

What's more odd is that Sophie Cookson often carries an air of Keira Knightley in her more animated performances. Not that there's much potential for character flashbacks there, of course.

THIRD-STAGE DISCIPLINARY HEARING

With a theatrical name like Trevor Nunn helming proceedings, I'd been woried this would be quite a stagey affair. And while that definitely comes through with Dench's present-day (or as close as) scenes, the past-narrative is almost completely televisual. And not great, dynamic, better-than-its-ever-been television, just very ordinary Sunday night fare.

The story as it stands is now two decades old, and this telling doesn't seem to take any risks or challenge its audience in any way. You have to wonder who Red Joan was really made for, other than being a shelf-warmer in the £3 section of Asda's entertainment section.

It's basically fine.

This is Philomena meets The Imitation Game, without the emotional punch of either.



Not particularly.



Stream it, tops. Or wait for it to be on telly since that's clearly where it belongs.



It is not.



That's possible.



There isn't.



Level 2: Sophie Cookson was in that Kingsman film, with Mark 'Skywalker' Hamill, Sam 'Windu' Jackson, Ralph 'Garmuth' Ineson and even Geoff 'Frobb' Bell.







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