One of the biggest atrocities of the modern age is also one that has largely been absent in pop culture, and that is the Holodomor, which is a famine that swept the Soviet Union in 1932 through 1933. This wasn’t a famine that came as a result of changes in environment or other potential natural causes. It was a man-made exercise that came from the orders of Joseph Stalin that he placed due to a combination of rapid industrialization leading to a decreased agricultural workforce, excessive acquisition of grain and other foods that would later be taken to and exported from Moscow as a way to fund weapons and further industrialization, as well as a way to crack down on rising Ukrainian calls for independence.
The number of deaths, mostly of Ukrainians, has been a subject for debate among scholars, but is undoubtedly in the millions. The unfortunate thing is knowledge of the famine was kept under the rug through Soviet propaganda and other forms of cover-ups. It really wasn’t until after WWII that it became more aware and taken seriously. But who knows how much longer it would have went on had it not been for the work of journalists like Gareth Jones, who was the first to break the news to the world, and is the subject of the latest film from Polish filmmaker, Agnieszka Holland.
In Mr. Jones, we follow Gareth (James Norton), introduced to us as a young, ambitious journalist who has gained some admiration among his peers for an interview he did with Adolph Hitler. Through his connections, he is given permission for a trip to the Soviet Union where he intends on getting an interview with Stalin to discuss the apparent success of his first five-year plan. However, suspicious of his restriction in Moscow, he boards a train and makes his way into Ukraine where he discovers the terrible truth.
The film is beautifully made. While I’m sadly not very well versed in the works of Agnieszka Holland, her eye here is assured. The gloomy, desaturated color palette paints a bleak portrait of life in the Soviet Union, and all the sets and costumes really bring the film to life. The cinematography from Tomasz Naumiuk is elegant, giving the film the vibe of an old fashioned epic; a feeling which is enhanced by the moody and sweeping score from Antoni Komasa-Łazarkiewicz. But despite all this, there is a sense that something crucial is lacking.
There is a big noticeable difference between the version now available for you to see and the one that premiered at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival back in February of 2019, and that difference is almost a half hour. The film originally clocked it at about two hours and twenty minutes, probably adhering closer to what the screenwriter, Andrea Chalupa, originally had on paper, but it has since been cut down to an hour and 58 minutes.
Obviously, doing some editing tweaks after a film has already premiered is nothing new, but I can’t help but think the original version, as baggy as it might have been, likely would have felt more like a complete picture of the story being told. As if, the film seems to rush through a lot of events, like it’s serving historical bullet points. It doesn’t necessarily make it less engaging, but it does make the overall experience feel like it’s got no meat on its bones.
Thankfully, the performances, especially that of James Norton, helps keep you attached to the urgency of his character’s situation, bringing you along an escalating series of horrifying images. His performance does a wonderful job in reflecting the earnestness of his character, and you really feel his frustrations when he is faced with backlash on his reporting later in the film. Peter Sarsgaard is also great in his relatively short time on screen as Walter Duranty, the English reporter who settled in Moscow, and has served as a propagandist on behalf of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, Vanessa Kirby, who plays Ada Brooks, a NYT reporter working under Duranty who secretly lets in Gareth on the fact that things aren’t as they seem. There’s a lot of promise with her character as she is constantly having to fight the battle of ethics over her own personal safety, and often having to save her own skin, even if it means perpetuating lies. However, either due to the cut screentime because of the re-edit or whatever, her presence isn’t strongly felt, and she ends up getting lost in the shuffle, only appearing a handful of times just to push the narrative forward.
If you aren’t that aware of the famine, then Mr. Jones might be a fascinating insight into a piece of history that we don’t see explored in art often, at least not in movies. It is a compelling enough watch because it’s made by people who are clearly very good at what they’re doing. It just doesn’t add up to all that much, despite the fact that a story about the necessity of good journalism and speaking truth to power is one that has only gained more relevance over time. But instead of tapping into something a bit more zeitgeisty, the film wastes time with sequences implying that George Orwell (Joseph Mawle) was directly inspired by Jones’ exposé to write Animal Farm, which feels like a rather dubious, oversimplified connection at best, and whose addition to the film feels very half-hearted and perfunctory. What should be a revelatory epic feels reduced to its forgettable and generic counterpart that will likely slip by viewers today, and end up as a future staple in classrooms when the teacher has nothing else planned for the day.