I hope this does not win any big awards. I thought this film was pretty bad, and so did everyone who saw it with me. Forget about answering the question about who was the spy. Who was dead? Who was alive? Who is a homosexual? Who is bisexual? Who is a lesbian?
I was disappointed in this film because the trailers had all looked interesting and I was reeally looking forward to it. What a waste of talent! And a waste of my time!
I liked this motion picture very much and think it deserves Oscar nominations. This is on my best film list for last year.
A lot of people that I know did not like it at all.
I read the novel by John le Carré many years ago. I read most his novels, and found them boring - no action. They were all somewhat confusing in identifying the characters in my opinion. I finally gave up and started reading Robert Ludlum.
How does it compare with the TV series? I’m going to guess that the TV series is better.
****Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy****
I believe this movie was done for TV about 25 years ago with Alec Guinness as George Smiley.
I certainly don’t agree with The Guardian that we are encouraged to see our side and their side as equivalent. That is more true in later le Carre works.
The mole is shown at the end saying he had to make a choice, and he made an aesthetic choice. Not moral, not philosophical, not political, not patriotic. Aesthetic. To me that was one of the most degenerate statements I ever heard.
In the book, the loyalty to country and to freedom, and the disdain for communism, are even more emphatic, but they were there in the movie too.
Haven’t seen the film yet, but I can’t imagine it being that good, only because there’s too much story to stuff into two hours. I highly recommend the 1979 mini-series, with Alec Guiness as George Smiley:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080297/