Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Though my other half said that too much dialogue & not interesting film, I decided to watch it on my own. I’m glad I did as it was bloody marvellous!

Rubbish!!! Switched off after just over an hour, it did not get going. The story was hard to follow. I thought it would b great due to the excellent British cast, how wrong could I be!!!

Great film worth the watch oldman delivers again good format long film but in the genre of the authur le carre fans will enjoy

It's true that I first tried to watch this on a Friday night with a bottle of wine when I could barely keep my eyes open. And I failed to keep up for more than half an hour. However, I later watched this on a stolen rainy afternoon when a bout of flu had made it impossible for me to move from the couch,and I had much more success. It's certainly true that the plot isn't spoon fed to the viewer. Miss thirty seconds of virtually inaudible dialogue and you may as well rewind. But if you are prepared to give this your full attention, with a little application, this film is one of the best ever and truly what the brits do best. Aesthetically, the film is beautiful. Slick, stylish and understated, it offers a true visual picture of the seventies without overdoing it - not every wall is clad in woodchip and there is not a pair of purple flairs anywhere. Instead, lots of clothes just like your grandad wore in twenty shades of sombre. There are a few contextual mistakes, like at one point, speed bumps circa 1990 appearing in central London. But these are easily forgiven against the general backdrop. In terms of the interpretation of the book, it is true that this isn't the book nor the tv series. Instead, this is a truly modern post-coldwar interpretation. Gone is the real sense of terror that people had regarding the east at the time not just in terms of communism as an ideology but also in terms of potential oblivion in the form of nuclear war. In it's place is the portrayal of a gang of public school educated men (on all sides)playing intricate mind games in the name of ideology with an unfaltering sense of futility about it. Interesting. The characterisation is virtually flawless. Gary Oldman is soooo good that you forget it's gary oldman and it's fair to say that there isn't one bad performance in this film. Give this one your full attention and you won't be disappointed. Refreshing change from Bond.

An hour in and then gave up, the story didn't grab me, despite an interest in the genre and the era.