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Awix (3310 KP) rated Red Joan (2018) in Movies

Apr 21, 2019 (Updated Apr 21, 2019)  
Red Joan (2018)
Red Joan (2018)
2018 | Drama, Thriller
Good-looking but turgid romantic melodrama. Sweet old granny (Dench, not in it much) is hauled in by special branch when her history as a Russian mole on the A-bomb project nearly sixty years earlier comes to light. Most of the film is made up of flashbacks of her as a young woman, dealing with the reasons why she spilled the radioactive beans.

The problem is that the film is so preoccupied with the protagonist's romantic life - she's in love with the dashing mysterious foreign guy! she's in love with her colleague! etc - that the nub of the issue never really comes into focus. Crucial character choices aren't properly explained and some potentially interesting historical material recedes into the background, eclipsed by hackneyed and corny melodramatic scenes that even performers like Dench and Sophie Cookson can't elevate much. Decent production values can't save such a sub-standard script.