Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Directed by Tomas Alfredson

(R)

****

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Gary Oldman “delivers what may be the performance of his career” in this adaptation of the famous John le Carré novel, said Dana Stevens in Slate.com. Oldman plays George Smiley, a retired British spy who in the early 1970s is rehired to help identify a Soviet operative who has infiltrated British intelligence. “It’s a rigorously unshowy and therefore all-the-more-demanding role”; the character, as portrayed by Oldman, “provides the story with its wise, unsmiling soul.” Director Tomas Alfredson is so respectful of his audience that he probably overestimates our intelligence, said Elizabeth Weitzman in the New York Daily News. Because it’s almost impossible to fully follow the screenplay’s intricate threads and arcane spy jargon, you “may want to read the book before you buy your ticket.” But those prepared to give the film a close viewing will be rewarded with “a moody, layered, and involving thriller,” said Claudia Puig in USA Today. Many scenes are “beautifully photographed and intriguingly framed.” Small touches, such as the “dusty light” streaming into an apartment, “viscerally set the mood.” In this world, “details matter.”