stellar performances

Rating: 7/10 (16 October 2011)

Brilliant film... Stellar performances from Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Tom Hardy. Everyone actually - it was a real ensemble piece. The pace was slow and back and forth, and that added to the overall style and gritty realism of the film. The silences and un-answered questions were tantalisingly intriguing adding to the mystique of the spy genre, I felt I was investigating too... Having not read the book, I am ashamed to say, I didn't know what to expect of course. Lots of homo-erotic subtext, which added another onion layer to the piece, which I understand wasn't in the book, and I felt the cinematography, and spirit of the film was very in keeping with the era. The film was graphic in an emotionally gripping way, not in a gratuitous way, and there were so many scenes that will stick in the mind for various reasons and for the brilliant way they were portrayed; a certain bullet hole... the love scene... tears when a partner leaves etc. Smiley was always known as being invisible, a grey/brown character and the perfect spy and the whole film sort of took on that mantle. Superb film. Tom Hardy adds again to his chameleon status, he really was incredible. I don't quite know how he does it!! There will be gongs a-plenty for this!