A Compassionate Spy
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: August 4, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The GuardianPhil HoadMar 22, 2023
James’s sleek telling excels at intertwining the personal and the political with illuminating detail. Read full review
83
Original-CinLiam LaceyAug 4, 2023
In contrast to the complex psychodrama of Nolan’s opus, A Compassionate Spy is a gentle and intimate film, largely narrated by Hall’s wife, Joan, who was 90 at the time of filming. She tells a love story. Read full review
80
Film ThreatBenjamin FranzAug 24, 2023
In preparing A Compassionate Spy, James seamed together a spellbinding collage concerning the life and times of Ted Hall and his family. It is a wonderful documentary, and I encourage everyone who wants a greater sense of the story of the Atomic Age to check it out. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayAug 4, 2023
This absorbing, thoughtful film doesn’t take sides; that’s not James’ way. Read full review
80
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 9, 2022
A Compassionate Spy is intimate and modest, more about a marriage than geopolitical tensions. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy LodgeSep 9, 2022
The film demonstrates its director’s characteristic nose for strong material and knack for gripping, straightforward storytelling. Read full review
80
TheWrapRobert AbeleSep 9, 2022
It’s worth being reminded by James’s layered, grippingly told account of a principled betrayal that when it comes to the biggest threats facing the globe, sometimes one person in the right circumstance can make a difference. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDaniel FienbergSep 9, 2022
A Compassionate Spy borrows the look and feel of a historical espionage thriller and builds some momentum and moral complexity along the way, but it finds its real potency as a generational family drama. Read full review
75
The Film StageLogan KennyAug 4, 2023
Instead of coming across as an objective, analytical view of Ted’s life and experiences, it ends up a tapestry of ancient memories, intricately crafting a portrait of a relationship and a man that might not be the exact one who breathed. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 4, 2023
What’s effective and touching in A Compassionate Spy relates directly to the satisfaction of getting to know Joan Hall, a terrifically vital and reflective presence. We get, among other things, a glimpse of a long-lived marriage hounded by secrets and surveillance, but an abiding mutual trust. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperAug 3, 2023
The film leaves no doubt Ted Hall was a brilliant man, and that he and Joan had a beautiful marriage. His legacy beyond that remains a subject of intense debate. Read full review
75
The PlaylistCharles BarfieldSep 9, 2022
Steve James’ film not only convinces you to believe that a compassionate spy can exist but also to have compassion for a man who committed a traitorous act. And even though the editorial choices are leading in their execution, it’s no secret that A Compassionate Spy is a moving, thoughtful documentary. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneChris VognarAug 4, 2023
James approaches A Compassionate Spy with a compassionate touch; this is more a profile of a man and a 52-year marriage than a History Channel-style march through events. And it is certainly not an indictment. Read full review
70
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisAug 3, 2023
The general impression given by this warm, low-key film is that the spying was a simple act of pacifism. Countervailing voices are faint and few; anyone seeking more vigorous pushback will have to look elsewhere. Read full review
67
IndieWireDavid EhrlichSep 9, 2022
If A Compassionate Spy is oddly dispassionate for a documentary so attuned to the humanistic inner-workings of history in progress, the film can’t help but find a measure of beauty in the unspoken trust that Ted and Joan placed in one another. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyAug 4, 2023
A Compassionate Spy is strongest in digging into the archives to give audiences who might not know this cultural history a real feel for what was happening. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanAug 1, 2023
A Compassionate Spy is less a full companion piece to “Oppenheimer” than an intriguing sidebar. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChris BarsantiSep 9, 2022
The suggestion that Ted Hall’s actions were that of simple and pure heroism leaves Steve James’s documentary in tension with the more nuanced view that Hall seemed to have of himself. Read full review
58
Paste MagazineJacob OllerAug 3, 2023
A Compassionate Spy is not a thrilling recollection of treason. It has little to say about the actual espionage that Hall pulled off when he was an 18-year-old Harvard grad working on the Manhattan Project. Read full review
55
The Daily BeastNick SchagerAug 4, 2023
A Compassionate Spy takes a far more rose-tinted, one-note view of Hall—a tack that requires skirting past major conflicting particulars and eschewing the very uncertainty that Hall himself exhibits in numerous archival interviews. Read full review
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