Reviewed by Victor Rebikoff.
Director: Trevor Nunn, Lionsgate and Transmission Films, M 101 Minutes.
The 1950’s saw Britain being rocked by the revelation that British members of a KGB spy ring, namely Maclean, Burgess, Philby and Blunt, had infiltrated the intelligence network by sending important secrets to the Soviet Union during World War 2.
However this was not to be the last of the spy scandals as director Trevor Nunn (‘King Lear’) reveals in his engaging expose of the KGB’s longest-serving British spy who transferred significant nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union.
Based on Jenny Rooney’s novel of the same name, Judi Dench (‘Skyfall’) plays the part of Joan Stanley, the character inspired by the life of Soviet spy Melita Norwood, whose real identity remained hidden for some 60 years.
Stanley’s story begins in 2000 following the death of former government official Bill Mitchell that ultimately led to her arrest at home in her eighties by Britain’s Special Branch and accompanied by her barrister son Nick (Ben Miles –‘Five Years’).
It is during her interrogation that she recalls her early life as the youthful student Joan (Sophie Cookson –‘Kingsman’), shown through a series of flashbacks, studying physics at Cambridge in the 1930s where she meets Sonya (Tereza Srbova –‘Siren’), an enigmatic Soviet sympathiser.
Besides forming a friendship with Sonya, the innocent-looking Joan also falls in love with her Russian-born communist cousin Leo (Tom Hughes –‘Realive’) before being lured into supporting their leftist activities, in particular the passing of nuclear secrets to the Soviets.
It soon becomes clear throughout the extensive period of her involvement as a spy – especially in her senior years – that Joan never believed that she had betrayed her own country.
Instead, Joan somewhat naively assumed that her passing of the secrets from her nuclear facility was in fact contributing to world peace, which may account for her not being prosecuted, having died in 2005 at the age of 93.
There is much to enjoy in Nunn’s espionage drama, not least being the captivating storyline dealing with the real-life story of a British spy working for the Soviet Union whose identity was only revealed in her retirement.
Apart from Cookson’s convincing portrayal as the young Joan, the major disappointment for many Judi Dench fans would be her limited screen time appearance.
Vic’s Verdict: 3 ½ Stars
