Mr. Jones Parent Guide

Gareth Jones (James Norton) is an astute young man with a thorough understanding of the political changes roiling Europe in 1933. When his employer, former Prime Minister David Lloyd George (Kenneth Cranham) cuts his position as foreign advisor due to budget constraints, Jones decides to become a journalist. It’s not an unrealistic goal – Jones has already managed to interview Adolph Hitler. Working on the assumption that talking to another notorious leader will boost his career, Jones sets his eyes on Moscow and an interview with Josef Stalin.

Moscow is more than Jones bargains for. Not only is the Soviet government determined to keep him from discovering the truth about how they are financing their modernization projects, but they are aided and abetted by a complicit Western press corps, most depressingly exemplified by the morally corrupt New York Times bureau chief, Walter Duranty (Peter Sarsgaard).

The picture becomes immeasurably worse as Jones walks through the frozen Ukrainian landscape. He uncovers the grim secret the Soviets are trying to hide – famine. Grain has been forcibly confiscated from Ukrainian farmers to fund Stalin’s projects and the people are starving and dying by the millions. Arrested and intimidated, Jones finally returns home and shares the horrors he has seen with the world – only to discover that truth is inconvenient and unwanted.

Mr. Jones is a powerful film about moral integrity and it gains added resonance from the fact that it’s based on a real life story. Gareth Jones believes that his first duty is to the truth, and he refuses to be complicit in the attempts of the Soviets, other journalists, or his own government to whitewash the living nightmares he has seen. It’s also a depressing depiction of the terrible costs of moral relativism, particularly in Duranty’s attempts to excuse and enable the Soviet government’s abuse of its own people.

Although Mr Jones comes with strong messages, it is also burdened with some problematic content. There is a disturbing scene involving cannibalism, and another showing heavy drinking and the recreational drug use. There are also frequent shots of dead bodies. Parents will be concerned by a party involving sexually provocative behavior and featuring extended views of breast and buttock nudity. While this does illustrate the debauchery of the press corps, it’s still not family friendly viewing and pushes the movie into Restricted territory.

The content issues are unfortunate because the film is educational and contains the kind of positive messages parents want their teens to see. As Gareth Jones says, “I don’t have an agenda unless you call truth an agenda.” That’s the kind of integrity that is necessary in any democracy at any time in history.