Disappointing

Rating: 2/10 (20 December 2011)

The sets, the filming and the.... ambiance of the film were all good.
I was impressed with Oldman, Hurt and Burke - they all played fantastic to character in this film rendition. Mark Strong did a reasonable Prideaux also, though the method at the end didn't suit the character...
There are my two stars - from here on, no stars :(
The warping of the characters - some of which appears to be only for PC reasons is absurd.
The plot jumping is a mess, and even knowing the story intimately we were wondering how they got from one scene to the other.
The characters of the rest of the 'old guard' are unconvincing - and not properly visited. The casting of them doesn't fit their roles - or if it did, we are never given a chance to find out.
Firth as Hayden just lacked the confidence bordering on arrogance to carry off the role. The breakdown into tears of Esterhase had us looking on in bafflement.
As for changing Guillam from such a strong character into effectively an errand boy ... words fail me.
After watching the film, I reflected on what Le Carre said in his reviews when asked about the film. He focused on the performance of Gary Oldman, stating that he was as close to the written Smiley as Alex Guinness had been in the BBC version. This ties in nicely with a bit from the book (and film etc) -- "In any lie there must be an element of truth"
Spend your money and your time with the BBC mini series instead - I saw it for £8 yesterday in HMV. An utter bargain.