Red Joan
Lionsgate | Release Date: April 19, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
45
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
13
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Film ThreatTiffany TchobanianApr 15, 2019
Lindsey Shapiro has captured an intriguing piece of hidden history, showcasing women’s strengths and the overlooked roles they played during the world’s most turbulent times of war. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comTomris LafflyApr 19, 2019
Uneven it may be, Red Joan still emanates a memorable essence, one that’s refreshingly and believably feminine. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungMar 21, 2019
A good old-fashioned British spy thriller. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerMay 2, 2019
Young Joan is played by Sophie Cookson, magnetic in the role. Dench is underused, though. The film’s suspense is waiting on the world-class actress to bust out some chops. It never happens. The spy who bored me, rather. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldMay 1, 2019
You sense that this woman has spent a lifetime not saying things, and that all she wants is to quietly be allowed to fade away. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanApr 23, 2019
Yet as good as she is, the actress is little more than the framing device for this polished and morally provocative — yet hardly pulse-pounding — tale, loosely based on the life of English spy Melita Norwood. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 18, 2019
Somewhere buried in the structurally unsound and unevenly paced Red Joan, there exists the material for not only one but two intriguing motion pictures. Unfortunately, neither manages to struggle to the surface and we’re left with a mediocre mash-up of an old-fashioned spy movie and the story of a son coping with the sins of his mother. Read full review
60
CineVueLucy PopescuApr 18, 2019
Red Joan is unlikely to appeal to younger audiences and many may find the wartime plot, setting and slow-paced romance old-fashioned, but it will win fans because there is much to admire: The solid acting, Lindsay Shapero’s deft screen adaptation, Zac Nicholson’s evocative cinematography, accompanied by George Fenton’s original score. Read full review
58
IndieWireKate ErblandApr 19, 2019
A strange, bifurcated tale of love and espionage, with Judi Dench stuck in a thankless role that does nothing to capitalize on her talents. The film is worse for it. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 6, 2019
Dench gives a knotty, empathetic performance, reluctantly self-righteous. And Crookson is a perfectly serviceable, fiery younger Joan. The men? They’re just archetypes, and rather drab ones. Read full review
50
Original-CinJim SlotekMay 3, 2019
Cookson is engaging enough as Joan, mercurial politics and all, but it’s a prosaic tale considering its enormity. And it never really finds its feet as entertainment. Read full review
50
TheWrapElizabeth WeitzmanApr 18, 2019
By the time the film was finished, I felt ready to move on from these characters. But I was definitely ready to learn more about Norwood. Read full review
50
The PlaylistJessica KiangMar 21, 2019
It’s always dangerous to wonder about what a film might have been rather than contending with what it is, but in this case what it is, is so bland, and so stolidly workmanlike in execution that even the most dedicated viewer might find her attention sliding off DP Zac Nicholson‘s ration-book-colored images and wandering to the what-ifs. Read full review
50
Screen DailyWendy IdeMar 21, 2019
Solidly competent and, for the most part, well acted the, film employs a safe, familiar approach and lacks the distinctive element which could boost its box office potential. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerMay 1, 2019
International intrigue has rarely been less intriguing. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeApr 22, 2019
This is film-making that feels rather dated and, unlike its resourceful protagonist, curiously risk averse. Read full review
40
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisApr 18, 2019
Leave it to the feted British theater director Trevor Nunn to flatten the intrigue and dampen the lust that could have made Red Joan zing. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawApr 17, 2019
Quite simply, there is not enough Dench, not enough Old Joan, not enough about how she feels about the decades of deceit, and tension, and becalmed ordinariness, far from the drama of espionage. Read full review
40
EmpireAmon WarmannApr 17, 2019
Despite strong performances from Cookson and Dench, this potentially exciting espionage tale is dreary and forgettable. Read full review
40
The GuardianPamela HutchinsonMar 21, 2019
The film itself fails to overwhelm – mostly proceeding along dully familiar lines and anything but radical. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 24, 2019
It’s rather amazing that Sophie Cookson, who has most of the screen time as young Joan, isn’t detestable in the role. It tells you that she’d be perfectly charming in another movie. Actually, Dench is more off-putting here, if only because destructive naivete is more forgivable in the young. Read full review
20
VarietyDennis HarveyMar 21, 2019
Tweedy, dreary, and unconvincing. ... It’s dismaying that so little drama is wrung out of the tale, and that what we get too often feels like a cliché-riddled romantic pulp. Read full review
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