Studio Canal, Karla Films, Paradis Films,
Gary Oldman, Kathy Burke, Benedict Cumberbatch, David Dencik, Colin Firth, Stephen Graham, Tom Hardy, Ciarán Hinds, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Konstantin Khabensky, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Simon McBurney, Mark Strong
This story of the Cold War tells the story of George Smiley (Gary Oldman), a retired agent(due to a failed operation in Hungary), back into work to uncover a Soviet spy within MI6. Due to the failure in Hungary and what has happened since there are 4 senior agents who are suspect, and it’s tough to pin down who has sold out.
This film is a remake of a 1979 TV Miniseries starring Alec Guiness in the role played by Gary Oldman (Smiley). It was a much longer production, and this one probably suffered in the cutting room, trying to get it down to just over two hours. Even though I have not seen the original, I was really unimpressed with this film. It has its fans, that’s for sure. Some people love long slow drawn out spy melodramas, very short on any action, and very cerebral. I think if you’re like this, you’d be more satisfied with the book, however. Not only is the film very deadpan and extremely slow (Dare I say boring?), but a lot of it is left resolved, never explained, and just plain missing any info on it at all. This is one of those films where fans sit around discussing why this happened, and what that means.
For me, I was basically bored silly for two hours, and didn’t really care if they found the mole or not. After all, Reagan’s going to get them to tear down the wall, and the Soviet’s days were numbered anyway.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog