This film is a good representation of Cold War England, but lacks any real breakthroughs on any level

Rating: 7/10 (19 October 2012)

This film was good, and really helped to paint a picture of cold war england, but the movie represents what it is about, its a cold war, not a hot one, so if your expecting action or anything else than some stern faces walking around for two hours then I'm afraid you'll be disappointed.
This film is essentially Gary Oldman trying to find who the 'mole' is in the 'circus', who were one of the main sources of secret information in the Cold War, however although I am a huge fan of Oldman, watching him walk around for hours wasn't exactly what I would call amazing acting, but he certainly did play his character well, and he really did carry the film, albeit slowly and without any real emotion, without him the film would have been nothing.
I also felt that part of the reason this film never seemed to 'pick up' so to speak is the idea that event the music was kind of this constant drone, and it was like the beginning to some god awful American TV sitcom from the 60's, it did give the film that sense of the situation being mundane, where other films about this period would make more exciting. But thats what this film did, it was never that boring, and was never that exciting even when the thrilling conclusion was coming into fruition.
One flaw that I kind of found was that the character 'Tailor' is outlined on the front cover to be the mole, which is kind of annoying, as before the film even started you know who the character was who was the 'mole'. The films acting was generally fair, although for me there were no real, breakthrough performances, which was weird, considering the all star cast that this film had.
The perspective was also a little confusing at times, and I often had no idea were I was in time or space in the story, as well as parts like the end with the death of 'Tailor' being a little anti climactic, and should have been a little more emphasised.
This film is a good representation of Cold War England, but lacks any real breakthroughs on any level, and is merely a snapshot and so your left with many unanswered questions.