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Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Film)

by Mark Demetrius | January 16, 2012 17:32 | Edited January 16, 2012 17:35

A classy, moody suspense thriller, packed with just the right level of intrigue and nostalgia.

Based on the novel by John Le Carre, this is a demanding but engrossing Cold War spy drama. The time is 1973, and the setting is predominantly London, with side trips to Budapest and Istanbul. The appeal of a suspenseful story like this lies in its complexity, and its ambiguity. We can never be sure, until the bitter end, whether any of the characters are really what they seem to be. That said, the whole thing boils down to one essential question. There is a mole or double agent in MI6 (Britain's spy agency, or The Circus, as it's referred to here); who is he?

 

Gary Oldman plays George Smiley, a former agent who was sacked after a disastrous debacle in Budapest, yet who has been brought back to root out the traitor responsible for that very incident. Smiley is evidently troubled, but he's exceptionally laconic and evasive - even for a secret service man - and Oldman plays him with admirable subtlety and finesse. Then there's the suave and slippery Bill Haydon (Colin Firth), and the volatile head of The Circus known as Control (John Hurt)...all of them frightening in their disparate ways. And unseen but perhaps most feared of all, there is Karla, Smiley's opposite number on the Russian side...

 

For all its sinister mood and sporadically violent plot, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (marking an impressive English-language debut for Swedish director Tomas Alfredson, who helmed the acclaimed vampire film, Let The Right One In) also boasts an attractive element of nostalgia: cold and grey, but there nonetheless. It's a little short on exposition, but that's a minor quibble. And while it doesn't have quite the gravitas of the classic TV mini-series which starred the late, great Alec Guinness as George Smiley, it stands respectable comparison. A rattling good yarn, and well worth seeing.