World of shadows and Spooks

Rating: Null/10 (20 September 2011)

If you've seen the 1979 TV series or read the book, you are likely to remember from the outset which of the quartet of suspects is the Kim Philby character, the 'mole' at the heart of British Intelligence in the middle of the Cold War. If you haven't seen the series or read the book - and maybe even if you have - the labyrinthine story and the opaque Pinteresque script of this new cinema version probably won't make much sense.
A lot has had to be left out. The key character of Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong), damaged spy turned schoolteacher, and George Smiley's dogsbody assistant Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberpatch) are the only ones to have much depth to them. The four suspects are as shaded as the world they inhabit. Smiley himself (Gary Oldman) is the enigma at the heart of a mystery; his wife Ann is barely glimpsed, yet she has a vital role to play in the denouement.
Good to see Kathy Burke back on the screen, although the part of Connie Sachs has been cruelly condensed and allows her to make little of the impact Beryl Reid had on TV. But the movie - like the book - belongs to Gary Oldman. His interpretation strongly evokes Alec Guinness - a bleary eye for the clues lurking in the background, the dogged determination to ferret out the truth of the treachery that threatens to undermine the 'Special Relationship'. This is up there with Joe Orton and Lee Harvey Oswald as one of Oldman's finest performances.
The world of espionage has rarely seemed so shadowy. Most scenes are shot in dimly lit rooms and corridors. Outside meetings take place on sunless days. There is no sunlight in this movie, which has the darkest of themes: betrayal of your country, betrayal of your friends.
But - BUT - for a more vivid, more up-to-date, more thrilling take on spooks, the series to watch is SPOOKS, just re-starting on BBCtv for what we're told will be its final outing. Good acting, punchy scripts and plots that belong to the complex international affairs of the age we live in now: these spies make Le Carre's look decidedly old hat!