''Mr Jones'' ( pl, Obywatel Jones, lit= Citizen Jones; uk, Ціна правди, italic=yes, lit=The Price of Truth) is a 2019 biographical

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

directed by Agnieszka Holland. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival. The film loosely tells the story of Gareth Jones, a journalist from

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, who in 1933 travels to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

and uncovers the truth about the

Holodomor The Holodomor ( uk, Голодомо́р, Holodomor, ; derived from uk, морити голодом, lit=to kill by starvation, translit=moryty holodom, label=none), also known as the Terror-Famine or the Great Famine, was a man-made famin ...

, the devastating famine in

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

in which millions died.

Plot

In 1933, Gareth Jones is an ambitious young journalist who gained some renown for his interview with

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

. Thanks to his connections to

Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party (United Kingdom), Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for lea ...

, the former British prime minister, he can get official permission to travel to the

. Jones intends to try to interview Stalin and to find out more about the Soviet Union's economic expansion and its apparently-successful five-year development plan. Jones is restricted to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

but jumps his train and travels unofficially to

to discover evidence of the

, including empty villages, starving people,

cannibalism Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, b ...

and the enforced collection of grain. On his return to Britain, he struggles to get his story taken seriously. The film ends by recording that Jones died while reporting in

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

with a guide who was secretly connected to the Soviet

secret service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For ...

Cast

Release

The film had its world premiere at the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival. Distribution rights for North America were acquired by Samuel Goldwyn Films in August 2019, and was released in the United Kingdom on 7 February 2020. It was scheduled to be released in the United States on 3 April 2020.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics' consensus reads: "Flawed yet fundamentally worthy, ''Mr. Jones'' peers into the past to tell a fact-based story that remains troublingly relevant today." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a score of 68 out of 100 based on reviews from 19 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews". Kevin Maher of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' gave the film two out of five, calling it a "bungled biopic of Stalin whistle-blower". Peter Bradshaw of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' gave the film four out of five, calling it "a bold and heartfelt movie with a real Lean-ian sweep". Tim Robey of ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' gave it three out of five, praising Sarsgaard for his performance and for raising the "sadly untapped" potential of the film. Robey criticised the script and concluded, "There's enough in ''Mr Jones'' to make you want a good deal more". David Ehrlich at

Indiewire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...

gave the film a grade C. Kyle Smith of '' National Review'' gave the film a favourable review, noting "To this day, Mr. Jones is all but unknown and his courage is unsung by his inky heirs, whereas Duranty's

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

remains on the books even after a thousand other things have been canceled. Meanwhile, ''Mr. Jones'' joins the unconscionably brief list of brutally honest films about

Communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

." The film was received poorly by members of Gareth Jones's family, who drew attention to its various distortions and historical inaccuracies, but acknowledged the overall quality of the film. They also accused the filmmakers of taking advantage of their research, assistance, and goodwill. On 20 January 2020, a news story appeared in ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'' entitled "Family fury as film turns daring reporter Gareth Jones into accidental cannibal". This was based on an article written by Jones's great-nephew, Philip Colley, "The True Story behind the 'True Story' of ''Mr Jones''".

Awards

* Grand Prix Golden Lions at the 44th Gdynia Film Festival 2019.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mr Jones 2019 films 2010s biographical films 2010s political thriller films 2010s English-language films English-language Polish films English-language Ukrainian films 2010s Russian-language films Ukrainian-language films Welsh-language films British biographical drama films British political drama films British political thriller films Cultural depictions of David Lloyd George Cultural depictions of George Orwell Films about the Soviet Union in the Stalin era Films directed by Agnieszka Holland Films set in the 1930s Films set in 1933 Films set in London Films set in Moscow Films set in Ukraine Films set in Wales Films about the Holodomor Polish biographical films Polish drama films Polish thriller films Polish political films Drama films based on actual events Thriller films based on actual events Political films based on actual events Ukrainian biographical films Ukrainian drama films Ukrainian thriller films Ukrainian political films Biographical films about journalists Cultural depictions of William Randolph Hearst Polish biographical drama films 2010s British films