Genre: Crime/Drama/Adventure/Mystery
Starring: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds, Benedict Cumberbatch, David Dencik, Toby Jones, Stephen Graham, Simon McBurney, John Hurt
Set in post-war Britain where global super-powers are trying to harness as much intelligence as possible in the midst of the cold war and the possible outbreak of world war 3. The head of British Intelligence, Control (Hurt) sends an agent Jim Prideaux (Strong) to Soviet Hungary in order to get some high-quality information. Jim gets shot in Hungary and the incident sparks a diplomatic outrage with Control being evicted from the agency along with his right hand man, George Smiley (Oldman). Percy Alleline (Jones) now becomes the head of the 'circus' along with Bill Haydon (Firth), Roy Bland (Hinds) and Toby Esterhase (Dencik) as his support team. Percy starts sourcing his information via an operation called 'Witchcraft', information that Smiley and Control had earlier avoided since they don't trust it's credibility. Smiley is asked to join the circus back to investigate a claim by an MI6 operative, Ricky Tarr (Hardy) on a possibility of a mole in the agency and unravel the mystery behind it. The movie is a complex, thrilling and twisted spy tale that involves a whole lot of jargon, layers and side stories which all culminate to a thrilling end. It tries to be as close to reality as possible and it fulfills it's motive to a large extent. The performances in the movie are exceptional but the execution of the plot is where the movie failed to come out completely. It's complexity has gone against it, making it a little hard for the average audience to follow and appreciate. Had it been more simple with a more thrilling climax, the movie would have recieved far more appreciation. The end to the movie was not all that splendid and the outcome is more or less predictable. If you want a James Bond without the gadgets and action and only raw suspense, then the movie ticks all the right boxes for you.
Thumbs up: Performances
Thumbs down: A bit too hard to follow
Rating: 7.4/10
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