Movies

Have you found going to the movies lately just too ... easy? Then try Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the new, all-star spy flick adapted from a John Le Carre novel that's as complex as it is thrilling.

Britain's greatest leading men and character actors appear in this film: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones and Benedict Cumberbatch. They're all spies suspicious of each other after a botched international operation, and the fired agent George Smiley (Oldman) is tasked with quietly finding the mole.

He's particularly wary of the quartet now leading British Intelligence (or 'the Circus', as everyone calls it), who seem to have high-grade Soviet secrets, but the rogue agent Ricki Tarr (Hardy) is about to turn up in his home with a wild lead, if he can believe him.

This is smart stuff, made for people who like their mysteries to be complicated not by in-your-face red herrings but by the unknowableness of human character. Le Carre is the master of spy fiction (mainly because he was one, working for M15 and MI6 before he was outed by a double agent). It feels real, because it very nearly is.

Director Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In) has created a tight, detailed and well-paced adaptation that's coloured with an elegant palette of convincingly 1970s tweeds, sepias and pastels.

For all its style, substance and celebrity, Tinker Tailor can still leave you underwhelmed. There's a reason this story was such a hit as a BBC serial in 1979, even before our current 'golden age' of TV drama — its episodic series of small cliffhangers and climaxes are perfect for television, and with some extra space, the characters can develop to the point where you care for them.

Here, the actors have to fill in back stories and plot points with little more than weighted glances. This is an artistically impressive vehicle, but it can feel like it's driven away without you.