Part Boring, Part Overly Confusing.

Rating: 4/10 (3 March 2012)

*Contains Spoilers*
I haven't read the book, seen the TV adaptation and it's cinema release pretty much passed me by. I came into Tinker Tailor Solider Spy not knowing much aside from what the TV Guide said.
The first hour or so of the film could have been summed up in 10 minutes. I kept waiting for it to get going, but it didn't. We were being constantly introduced to characters without really knowing who they are, or what relevance they had to a story that I was really trying to piece together.
The character development in Tinker Tailor was very poor for a film that is held in such high regard. Colin Firth included, very little is told about any of the top MI6 agents that we are lead to suspect of being the mole, nor any of their motives. Gary Oldman aside, the characters that are developed well aren't as integral to the plot as those who aren't.
In the second hour the film did start to get going. Unfortunately I found it to be overly confusing, and coupled with some 'major' characters non-existent development, hard to follow at times.
It got to the point where I almost felt they randomly chose one of the MI6 agents to be the mole without any reasoning being his motives. Maybe I missed something in the second half after being bored by the first half, and perhaps I needed some prior knowledge, but I honestly couldn't have guessed who it was because nothing that happened would have lead to believe one way or the other.
I sense that it could be a film I could enjoy a lot more on a second viewing, but the first hour was far too dull to bring myself to watch it. From the great reviews I wish I could have enjoyed it, but sadly, I didn't.