Unbearably Disappointing - Painful.

Rating: 1/10 (13 May 2012)

After feeling unable to continue watching this torturously dull "film" for more than an hour, I feel i can only comment on my experience of the picture rather than the quality of the film on whole. Unless the last hour is a dialogue packed, exhilarating tale of espionage (as it was billed as) this film is at the best, forgettable. Gary Oldman is "brilliant" as a boring and morose character to which he feels he needs to add little personality and memories of Cumberbatch's fantastic portrayal of Sherlock Holmes are the only saving grace for Oldman's co-star. As the film began I felt myself embarrassingly confused but the hope that this hazy introduction would act only as a prelude to an exciting and gripping tale kept me watching. That. Never. Happened. I felt - something I thought was impossible - my eyes closing themselves, and tiredness rapidly set in as I heard one incomprehensible Russian name after another. Maybe this was simply psycho-somatic - my mind telling me this was not for me. However I must give hope to all those that feel similar symptoms, there is a cure - turn the film off. I expected to be gripped by delicately portrayed tales of espionage and secret betrayals, but instead I met only a wooden session of clear script reading (a piece of literature I imagine took up only three pages) and elusions to a mole that i felt no interest in discovering the identity of. Sorry to all those that enjoyed the film, but I felt it draining and miserly. I may try to watch it again in the future, but as for now I will stick to James Bond on the rare occasion I want to watch a spy film.