GRAN WHO BETRAYED A NATION
INSPIRED by the true story of Melita Norwood, a septuagenarian dubbed the “granny spy” when she was outed as a KGB source in 1999, this tangled tale of wartime espionage rations substance over period style. Judi Dench and Sophie Cookson share the title role, investing respective incarnations of a morally conflicted heroine with steely resolve and wide-eyed innocence as her act of treason – sharing scientific data with the USSR during World War II – reverberates across time. The complexities of Joan’s dilemma, conjured in the shadow of the atomic bombings in Japan, are diluted by scriptwriter Lindsay Shapero. Can you defuse tensions after decades of slaughter and suffering by weaponising all the major political forces with the same devastating technology?
Dramatic tension dissipates as the film’s fractured narrative fixates on an underpowered love triangle that operates as a broad metaphor for the ideological tug of war between East and West.
Softly spoken librarian Joan Stanley (Dench) diligently tends her garden and trades warm smiles with neighbours.
Then two police detectives arrive and charge Joan with 27 counts of breaking the Official Secrets Act.
Joan’s son Nick (Ben Miles), a respected barrister, is dumbfounded as authorities accuse his mother of treason dating back more than 60 years. As detectives attempt to extract a confession, Joan drifts into a fugue state of fractured reminiscence, flashing back to 1938 when she studied natural sciences at Cambridge.
Naive, bookish Joan (now played by Cookson) is befriended by German Jewish student Sonya (Tereza Srbova), who introduces the shy fresher to her politically outspoken cousin Leo (Tom Hughes).
The communist refers to Joan as “my little comrade” and seduces the shrinking violet, imploring her to share intelligence with the KGB when she begins work with Prof Max Davis (Stephen Campbell Moore) on Britain’s atomic bomb programme.
Dench possesses an ability to snag our affections even when the script doesn’t give her anything interesting to impart.
I spy a missed opportunity.