Tinker Tailor Soldier siiiiiigh.

Rating: Null/10 (25 September 2011)

Even though I did not gawp as Sir Alec Guinness enthralled the great British middle classes in the late 1970's in the famous BBC adaptation of John Le Carre's celebrated novel, and indeed not having read the book, I nevertheless approached this much trumpeted British "classic" with enthusiasm.
My anticipation was grossly misplaced. It is a tedious and turgid celebration of Britain's Cold War spying fraternity that is so badly plotted that to the uninitiated it has the transparency of a potato.
If anyone can tell me what the hell was going on in this self indulgent nonsense I'd be grateful. On second thoughts, don't bother, I don't really care.
We Brits do get so chipper about our occasional foray into big news cinema and so the arrival of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy has been trumpeted loudly and uncritically in the British (mainly broadsheet) press.
The King's Speech too was credited with far greater quality than it actually delivered.
This is just a mess.
There is little to fault about the acting from a fine ensemble of British character actors who all carry out their duties perfectly well, generally in a half light that occasionally works cinematographically and sometimes just makes the action plain gloomy.
The art department excels however with excellent period details from start to finish.
Director Tomas Alfredson's first movie, Let The Right One in, is as tight as a drum and is beautifully realised - in stark contrast to this nonsense.
I can't honestly remember the last time I was quite so bored in a cinema and I blame, principally, the screenplay for this because it assumes its audience knows the detailed storyline and makes no effort to introduce novices to the basic premises of what the story is actually about.
How a film with so many twists and turns, flahbacks (way too many) and references can be boring beats me. But it is.
Unless you know the book or the TV series well, avoid like the plague.