No tension, tedious political correctness

Rating: Null/10 (14 September 2011)

It's obviously not easy to boil such a complex story down to movie length. Clearly there was no option but to go for a total re-write. Even the most ardent Le Carre fans must understand that. This is a brave attempt, but the movie is strangely devoid of tension. The characters are drab too, not nearly as well observed as those in the old 1979 TV series. A couple of things interested me: why was it necessary to turn Smiley's actively heterosexual sidekick Peter Guillam gay? And why, when Smiley was remembering his one encounter with Soviet spy master Karla, did he have to be given the extra line that the "Americans had got to him first and torn his fingernails out?" This leaden political correctness and tedious anti-Americanism seemed pointless as well as irritating.