If you haven't read the book, don't go

Rating: 1/10 (22 January 2012)

I hadn't read the book, nor had I seen the TV series. I was totally clueless as to what was going on throughout the movie. Obviously it was announced that they were looking for a mole within the organization but that was the extent of any clarity about the plot. I loved the sepia tones of the film and the tone of the set decoration, etc., but the plot had way too many characters and no hints as to what was connected to what. There's a device for carrying records within the Circus that is shown over and over that looks like an oven/elevator and I never understood the reason it got so much screen time. There's one scene in which we are with Smiley as he catches a quick glimpse of a woman I assumed was his wife, but we'd never been exposed to her except by name and I couldn't see enough in the glimpse to understand what I was supposed to get from the shot. Many times there were flashback scenes that were probably meant to add to clarity about the plot but the editing was badly done and I often didn't realize it was a flashback until a few minutes into the scene. I stayed for a little more than 90 minutes of complete confusion and then my friend and I walked out. She had read the book and still didn't know what was going on - it was her idea to leave. I've only walked out of one other movie in my life and that was about 20 years ago.