Smiley's catch

Rating: 8/10 (25 August 2014)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a best selling novel, turned to an award winning BBC television serial and now a condensed version has been turned to a film with a masterful performance by Gary Oldman at the centre.
The film is effectively a 1970s British noir, a 'whodunit' as veteran spy George Smiley is brought back into the secret service to flush out a Soviet mole. Oldman has to bring a different take on Smiley from Alec Guinness and manages to bring a stillness where you try to figure out what he is thinking inside his head.
Swedish Director Tomas Alfredson brings a stylistic retro view of the past and relies on actors such as Mark Strong, Tom Hardy, Colin Firth, Kathy Burke, Benedict Cumberbatch to bring out nuggets of their characters as Smiley gets closer to unearth the mole.
The film has its detractors, those who have read the book or viewed the TV series felt short changed as the film had to cut out lot of the material. Karla is unseen and some may view Mrs Smiley being virtually invisible when her behaviour is fundamental to the plot.
However the film has to be seen in its own merits and its a slow, thoughtful and a deceptively good version, finely acted.