SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

misslizw Perhaps the greatest artwork of the 20th century!!

Rodrigo Amaro A powerful honorable cat-and-mouse game of gentlemen entrenched in obscure offices and safe houses, stenching with cigarette and drinks, papers all around revealing codes, numbers and all sorts of information; not much action going around but those spies, informers and intelligent people know that when the danger comes it's better to find a way out of it. John Le Carré's anti-James Bond character the taciturn yet brilliant George Smiley was presented to readers in several novels, including "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" and the Karla trilogy, which consists of Smiley's greatest efforts, in order "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", "The Honourable Schoolboy" and "Smiley's People". To audiences, he was introduced with great detail in this BBC miniseries with Sir Alec Guinness as Smiley, providing a multi-layered performance that truly captures the essence of this realistic poor man's secret agent. John Irvin's seven part miniseries is a towering effort of all sources, highly commendable and worthy of praise...but it's appeal is slightly lost on me. Reason: Tomas Alfredson's masterpiece released in 2011 with Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Tom Hardy was simply mesmerizing and a true work of art that actually made me feel as part of that complex web of lies, countless characters and their complicated means. That film used the original source, maintained what was fundamental in it and drastically altered some plot points, schemes, abused of puzzling flashbacks that angered a great deal of people - there in the theater I had a minor yet bothering headache which started in the middle of the film but when all the answers were starting to come, it faded away like magic - but I absolutely loved it! It's like a magnificent chess game. Alfredson's cast and his choices for art-direction, cinematography, everything fit perfectly the film and his team of writers managed to condense everything in two hours, which is more amazing, and thanks to the mode he visualized this Cold War world, I started to read Karla trilogy with different (better) eyes. Above all, Oldman captured with exact measure the personality of Smiley: calm, always in control of the situation and always aware of what the enemy might do next. A bright intelligence, great worker for the British intelligence but whose life at home isn't completely sorted out, always having to deal with the infidelities of adored wife Ann. An enigmatic character and a challengeable role for an actor since Smiley is a man who holds back every emotion, and Oldman had to use a lot of nuances to express feelings and thoughts without let them completely visible. But the actor acknowledges: Guinness was his inspiration while playing the role.As for the miniseries, Guinness does a tremendous job and once again he disappears into a role with full commitment and passion. It's not an easy job to hold yourself back when all you want to do it's to react to what other people do or ask you to do. But I enjoyed his George Smiley, it felt real and quite close to the one we imagine from the books. In fact, the great advantage this film has over Alfredson's work is the fact that they covered the book in very faithful ways (obviously BBC had the time for it, 7 hours!), including verbatim from Le Carré's novel, descriptions and sequences, providing minor altering (they don't focus on much Peter Guillam is a ladies man - good point - but they made the special relationship between Prideaux and Haydon in innuendo terms that don't explain much for those who haven't read the book or seen the 2011 film). In terms of the challenges faced by a writer transforming a complex and detailed book into a film/miniseries "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" is a bright case for study. Le Carré isn't totally cinematic ("The Honourable Schoolboy" is his most filmic yet it's the one that never gets made into films because it's long, covers a great deal of important plot points in several locations. Now with the success of "The Night Manager" I seriously hope that Netflix, Amazon or HBO can make a miniseries of it...if possible with Gary Oldman as lead) but he offers alternatives and gripping stories that can be adapted for the screen, always with great chances to make it more palatable. However, BBC while making this project very close to the original source made it something wordy, heavily dramatic and at times exhausting to follow - I watched this in full with some breaks and not an episode per day; and with this lack of rhythm that makes it seen you're seeing a staged version of a novel instead of a film experience, the series lost in tension, in thrills and Le Carré is a creative genius source for those. Impossible not to compare it with book and another film but judging by itself it's a well made, well produced and well acted film. The epic proportions for such project is something that must be required when it comes to adapt Smiley's novels. I enjoyed positively the acting and the script in some moments (there's plenty of humor in it) but I don't think Mr. Irvin made a good use of locations, art-direction to reflect the 1970's, it's all painfully claustrophobic at times and very tiring. The final result avenges (but I still think people overestimate its quality. Sure, BBC never made anything like it back in the day but now it's common standard though with not the same precision in following an original material). I'm willing to give it a try with Guinness and BBC again with "Smiley's People". This time there'll be no other picture to compare (unless if Alfredson goes faster and release it now, and I'm still waiting for his return to his acclaimed film). 7/10

q_leo_rahman There are generally two types of spy fiction. One type is the larger-than-life adventure of a charming hero who battles nefarious and mysterious enemies bent on world control. The other type is a more realistic, bleaker tale of a spy battling in a world where his own allies would turn on him, for something that most people hold insignificant or irrelevant. This story falls under the second type, but while not so entertaining is one of the best spy stories ever done.Based on the classic spy novel by John Le Carre, this series tells the story as follows: In the 1970s, a fiasco at the British Secret Service shakes things up, forcing the head of the Service out and all his subordinates, including protagonist George Smiley. In his place steps in Percy Allenine, a pompous and arrogant official who smugly claims access to a source of Soviet intelligence that will revive the Service's reputation. However, a maverick spy named Ricki Tarr appears with information about a Russian spy hidden within the Service; he is dismissed, but raises enough concern for George Smiley to be recruited to make an investigation. The story is intelligently written, but the true power of the story lies in its emotional impact. Smiley was thrown out of work and then dragged back to clean up a mess he had nothing to do with; he has to deal with insufferable superiors who want to stay secure with no blame attached to them; his allies go through nightmares that cost them greatly; and finally, when the mole is revealed, the weary cynicism that led him to commit treason against (this character is one of the most ironic and tragic characters despite what he's done). And yet, Smiley and his allies doggedly strive for something pure and noble in the miry sordid world they live in, and their eventual victory and reward, while it may be small, is made sweeter and grants a touch of hope. This miniseries moves at a slow but masterful pace, having Smiley trace out the mole's ruinous track and identity in the manner of a detective story; the adaptation is done wonderfully, with expert expansion and removal of the novel's passages into a solid unique work. The cast is wonderful, with Alec Guiness leading an all-star ensemble; Guiness who usually plays a lean, dignified Brit, delivers a masterful performance as the meek, frog-like Smiley. Ian Richardson does a wonderfully ironic role as Bill Haydon and Ian Bannen is haunting as the wounded agent Jim Prideaux. A particular standout is Patrick Stewart as Smiley's enemy the Soviet spy Karla, who commands intensity and menace without uttering a single word throughout his appearance. On the whole, if you want to see how real spies do their work, this is the show for you to watch. It will not be exciting or easy, but it will be worth the watch.

siderite I have to admit that at first I was a bit disappointed. Old men talking a lot about spying, low budget sets, slow pace, no added drama. I thought it was going to be boring. And perhaps, if I were action minded, it would have been. Instead the series drew me in not by playing my emotional chords, not by special effects and not by adding superfluous problems to the story to give it extra oomph, but by presenting the story, step by step, as the rather cerebral character played by Alec Guinness peels the layers of the onion.So take what I told you as a warning. The series is excellent, but you will have to think about what everybody means when they say something, about why sometimes they just ask a lot of questions without seeming to be interested in the answers, which are not coming anyway and about how the game of cat and mouse is played.Bottom line: great, but slow paced spy thriller, aimed at the intellectual in you. It all involves the hunt for a mole in the highest ranks of MI6 during the Cold War, the villain mastermind being the uncredited Patrick Stewart as Karla, with Alec Guinness being its British opponent. It is rather low budget, and feels like a BBC play. Take your time and enjoy the show.