Female Film Critics 24/375
Her story begins as she trims the shrubs in front of her typical English cottage. Joan Stanley is about to be exposed as the KGB’s longest-serving spy in Great Britain, for right after hacking away at her wayward shrub, Stanley is arrested for 27 breeches of official secrets.
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Based on the real-life story of Melita Norwood, arrested for being a KGB intelligence source, by way of Jennie Rooney’s 2013 novel, the screenplay by Lindsay Shapero makes clear enough that the “spy granny” upset lots of people. It also makes clear a series of clichés, including Joan’s initial recruitment by a conventionally exotic Communist, Sonya , who enters her Cambridge dorm room window in order to avoid being caught following an escapade with a boy.
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Based on the sensational real-life story about elderly widow Melita Norwood, who was arrested for being one of W.W.II’s top spies, this turns out to be a tepid tale that’s totally lacking in suspense.
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