I liked this. A lot. But I wish I could have outright loved it.

Rating: 8/10 (9 February 2012)

The acting is impeccable. Gary Oldman completely disappears into the role of Smiley; the voice, the walk, the tempo are all a unique creation, a man who's strength comes from quiet, from watching, from thinking, not from action. Rarely have we ever seen a movie hero this passive. But this man is very actively passive. He may not move physically, but his mind is racing like a computer. And Oldman is surrounded by a top flight cast;; Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Ciaran Hinds, Benedict Cumberpatch, etc.
And the film is very well shot, delicately creating a dour world of beige and brown mazes.
But in distilling a story this complex down to two hours, something got a little lost for me. Smiley has to figure out who the mole in the British secret service is. But with this much plot, and this little time, we don't really get to know the suspects. So we watch and are (intentionally) confused, and then answers start to emerge, and it's all never less than interesting. But somehow it never crosses over into the emotional or unshakably memorable either.
I loved Alfredson's 'Let the Right One In' for it's uncanny combination of atmosphere, creepiness, intelligence and heart. For me, 'Tinker, Tailor" has the first three, but lacks the last. Some of that is the nature of LaCarre's work. But somehow I remember more moments, and more feeling from the now 30+ year old TV adaptation. Paradoxically, by not having to rush through a story this dense, there was room to really feel and experience it, instead of just working to keep up with it and take it in.
But all that said, this is a refreshingly smart, adult, well-made and challenging film in a world with far too few.