This is an awesome movie.

both timelines seem thin. I like Dench, but might have been better *not* as a flashback.

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.

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.

Jeannette Catsoulis

The New York Times