Smart, Interesting Film Trips Over Complex Story and Direction

Rating: Null/10 (27 December 2011)

I wanted to love this film, but found it quite frustrating from the start. Having not read the book, I avoided reading too many reviews--and found the story to be very interesting overall--but painfully complex. We never get a real sense of the characters--thus we can appreciate none of them personally and we don't really get much clarity about what is going on and what relationships are driving peoples' actions. The story would be much more interesting if the director gave us more to attach on to. But we both felt weary with the long and laboring plot and faded old school Brit characters to ever appreciate what could have been a great spy film. I have 100 questionsvand little emotion other than frustration after seeing this highly lauded film--Oldman may charm the Academy with his subtle character, but it's hard to care when it feels like you are watching a wax museum of spy films. We tried to enjoy, but left the theater with angst. Great story, painfully plodding and complex direction muddies it up!