a failed experiment

Rating: Null/10 (26 September 2011)

My impression, while trying to stay awake during the first part, was of a failed experiment: let's vampirize the cold war movie genre (good intention) and take anything vital out of it. Which might have been interesting if the vampirization had given life to something else. Unfortunately this does not happen. The film is excruciatingly lost in details, and it's even more painful because of the beautiful cinematography, which feels wasted on this effort. It's like a heavy coat of lead covering... well, not much. The actors seem disconnected from the environment and from each other (not only the characters, which would make sense considering the context, but the actors themselves, they seem to be in a vacuum). I found impossible to connect emotionally with any of them, which makes sense as they're all quite dispirited, but the problem is that none of them actually develops into a proper character. The non-linear time-line doesn't really feel justified, it's just confusing, over a plot that (Le Carré) is already quite convoluted. The only things that kept me from falling asleep were the photography, cinematography and editing, which are definitively captivating. But it's a case of style over substance. I might have as well stayed at home to watch my espresso machine.