George Smiley (Oldman), a retired spy, has been asked to return to investigate on the downlow, a long-hidden and high up mole in the Circle, the British spy ring Smiley used to work for. (They were the precursor to MI5.) The four suspects are played by Toby Jones, Colin Firth, Ciaran Hinds and David Dencik, and each seems to be hiding something.
Everyone else is impatient with their cases but Smiley is a listener and watcher. As some of the storylines concerning other characters are fleshed out, you can see they are linked to Smiley's investigation. He is patient and methodical, but ruthless when he has to be, even at his own personal cost.
There is a big scene in the first half where a lower level spy played by Tom Hardy explains a dilemma and asks Smiley for help. He has been sent to scope out someone in another country to see if he is worth helping to defect for his secrets. This dilemma ties into Smiley's investigation, but I thought for a time it took you away from Smiley for a while as it is a pretty lenghty flashback.
Another part of the plot concerns a character played by Mark Strong. His segment actually starts out the film, where he too was sent to another country to scope out a foreign spy. Other actors include John Hurt as Smiley's old Control, and Benedict Cumberbatch who is assigned by Control to help Smiley with footwork and investigation.
Production values are good, there are scenes and segments where the audience just gets visuals and sound cues, but no dialogue, which lends to the voyeurism/spying-on-the-scene feel of the film. Of the actors playing the four suspected moles, Ciaran Hinds did not do much at all but the other three each got at least one good scene and were all good.
No comments:
Post a Comment