Overall, it was an enjoyable ride.

Rating: 7/10 (25 April 2016)

I am a life-long fan of John Le Carré. He is one of my favourite 20th Century authors – and he is still going strong in his 70's. 'Tinker Tailor Soldier, Spy' was a classic of the cold war spy genre and it wasn't long ago that I watched the BBC 1979 adaptation, which I enjoyed very much, although I found the background music somewhat grating. So it was with great anticipation that I sat down to watch the 2011 celluloid version of Le Carré's classic.
On the whole I did enjoy it and I think I will probably watch it again as I feel it is that rare kind of film that requires more than one viewing to fully appreciate its 'finer points'. I have to say that if I hadn't read the novel and recently watched the BBC version, I doubt that I would have had much idea about what was going on. The film is a 'film noir' to outdo all 'film noirs' and I think you would have you be a bit of a clever-clogs to really follow all the nuances of the convoluted plot if you hadn't previously read the book or seen the BBC adaptation. But given that I had and I did, I managed to follow where the film was going – just about, as they did change some of the finer points of the story line. I also found some of the scenes quite brilliant in their ability to evoke to a bygone age and atmosphere.
I am now devoted fan of Gary Oldman who gave a masterful portrayal of George Smiley, but I do feel that most of the other main characters were pretty one-dimensional. Not the actors' faults, as they were all top drawer, and did their best with the material at hand, but more a fault of the screenplay. The exception to this was Smiley's wife, of whom we only ever caught the briefest glimpses, yet in some indefinable way, we somehow knew all about her. It is a 'patchy' piece of work – brilliant in parts and sometimes baffling, but never, as some have asserted, boring.
The plot moves along in brief 'snapshots' of dialogue and action and as a consequence, you have to be pretty quick-witted to fully appreciate what is actually happening. Overall, it was an enjoyable 'ride', and I particularly loved the scenes of the spooks' 70's 'office Christmas party', which were so evocative, grotesque and almost scary. I also loved the ending, but I won't spoil it for you. Oh the music is totally brilliant!