Mr. Jones

I do not claim that this is Agnieszka Holland's best film, but I am still surprised by the lukewarm or even negative reviews, which I do not agree with. As a history fan, I went through the protagonist's bitter journey to the land of the Soviets with him and I did not find any major flaws or uninteresting passages. The film not only affected me in the horrifying moments of confrontation with the despair of weakened and dying people during the famine but also in depicting the suffocating atmosphere of Stalin's Moscow in the 1930s and the decadent life of the tolerated (because it was somehow necessary) Western community. The aristocratic environment of the British upper class did not bother me either, as it was a materialization of real personalities from that era for me, and I did not perceive the longer duration as a handicap, nor do I feel that the topic is outdated. The need not to succumb to the powerful, and not to be conformist and cowardly, applied to journalism in the past century as well as it does today. Overall impression: 80%. (23/11/2021)

James Norton did a good job in the title role of this biographical drama, and I must admit that he was very believable, especially in the moments when he experienced human cruelty in its most raw form. What is most frightening about the story of British journalist of Welsh descent Gareth Jones is that it actually happened... One could use the motto: "Truth wins!" But when and where? It did not win then in Stalinist Moscow, let alone in Ukraine during the famine, and it is not winning today. And unfortunately, to our great misfortune, we do not need to go into the past to see this. Agnieszka Holland has my great admiration and sympathy for the topics she chooses and how she can convey them to those who will listen. (80%) (14/02/2022)

I saw the extended version and somehow I can't imagine how (and why) the film was shortened, because everything in it seemed important to me. Agnieszka Holland has my admiration for how she took a more or less unknown story and made it such an interesting period piece with a cautionary and unfortunately purely contemporary message. The search for truth, the speaking of truth, and the price to be paid for it... While the film itself isn't up to a full rating (I missed a more emphatic conclusion), it deserves a fifth star for what it says. (14/10/2019)