My "headline", quoted from the beginning of the movie, has layers of meaning. It is a VO from George Orwell, writing "Animal Farm". It can also be interpreted to refer to the story of the title protagonist, who purportedly had inspired Orwell to write "Animal Farm", an allegory to Stalin's "man-made famine", from investigative journalist Jones's devastating revelation.
This biopic of Welsh reporter Gareth Jones (James Norton) runs like a thriller for the first half. With the credentials in the form of an interview with Hitler, Jones wants to do the same thing with Stalin, but is soon intrigued by something else: his friend and peer Paul Kleb in Moscow's tip to him in a phone conversation that is suspiciously cut short.
In Moscow, he is told that Kleb was shot dead in a robbery three days ago. The personage disseminating this information is Walter Durante (Pater Sarsgaard), the Pulitzer-honoured New York Times correspondent. Jones is suspicious but Durante is slippery as an eel. This man is also known as "our man in Moscow" in the U.S. political circle back home.
Through Durante's assistant Ada Brooks (Vanessa Kirby), a principled British journalist and a good friend of Kleb, Jones become privy to the clue left behind by the victim with Brooks. On the pretext of being Lloyd George's political adviser, he secures passage to the forbidden zone in the Ukraine. He tries to persuade Brooks to join him but the realist in her has the better over the idealist, and she declines joining his crusade.
The objective of Jones's mission is to find out where Stalin gets his money to finance the industrial big leap forward that is shaded with ominous military intentions. He wants to get behind the apparently impenetrable screen to see for himself whether the Soviet's claim of an agricultural paradise in Ukraine is true or a sham.
That is the first half of the movie. The second half some in the audience may not be able to stomach, literally, as there is a scene at which Jones vomits violently. As well, the ending is gloomy: in the real world there is no poetic justice. In the clashing duel of stories published on the Ukraine famine, Pulitzer winner Durante gain the upper-hand even though Jones manages at least to expose the ugly truth to those who believe him. In the on-screen text before the final credit roll, we learn that Jones died before reaching 30, assassinated, while Durante enjoyed a long life (73, definitely long in terms of the general life expectancy of the time) embracing his Pulitzer to his grave.
But it is a good movie, well worth watching. Norton carries the movie well with his earnest portrayal of the Quixote-like Jones. The two supports are excellent. Sarsgaard brings his often-creepy screen presence to the sly villain he portrays. Kirby demonstrates her range beyond royalty and femme fatale.
Worth mentioning is the cinematography, particularly the sequences in Ukraine. It would look like this segment is shot in black-and-white, but in fact it is only the scenery and the objects shot. The landscape is snow-covered and the human's faces are pale and grey. Throughout the movie, you may also notice an extensive use of mirror reflections, in fact excessive, in my view.
Review of Mr. Jones
