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Clip Featurette UK Premiere. Photos Top cast Edit. John Hurt Control as Control. Arthur Nightingale Bryant as Bryant. Tomas Alfredson. More like this. Watch options. Storyline Edit. It transpires that Control believed one of four senior figures in the service was in fact a Russian Agent, a mole, and the Hungary operation was an attempt to identify which of them it was.

George Smiley Gary Oldman had been forced into retirement by the departure of Control, but is asked by a senior government figure to investigate a story told to him by rogue Agent Ricky Tarr Tom Hardy , that there was a mole. Smiley considers that the failure of the Hungary operation and the continuing success of Operation Witchcraft an apparent source of significant Soviet Intelligence confirms this, and takes up the task of finding him.

How do you find an enemy who is hidden right before your eyes? Did you know Edit. Goofs In one of the flashbacks to the Christmas party, presumably before Control resigns in , a "Lenin Santa" has everyone sing along to a recording of the Soviet National Anthem. The version that is played is the version - the original words fell out of favor after Stalin's death in and the anthem was played without words until the new version in Quotes George Smiley : I want to talk about loyalty, Toby.

Crazy credits The closing credits slowly shift from the right side of the screen to the left and then back to the right, no doubt to symbolize the heart of the story: a double agent who 'changes sides'. Connections Featured in Breakfast: Episode dated 1 September User reviews Review.

Top review. Brain not brawn. It really is interesting to read the above reviews. I've just come back from seeing it and thoroughly enjoyed it, but I wondered if for people who hadn't read the book or seen the TV series it would make sense, and obviously it doesn't. It also doesn't fit the change in perception that the current generation have needing an edit at least every 5 seconds and a linear storyline, that's not ageist, just what we in a much older generation have left as our inheritance, sadly.

Gary Oldman as Smiley is very good, much colder that AG and as in the book a bit younger. It is also less of the feel of a group of Oxbridge Dons in charge rather ex servicemen as MI5 was in those days. I was in my 20's in the early 's and the general dullness of everything during that time comes through very well. I would think that after they edited it they wished they hadn't had some rather crass graffiti so prominent, but I remember it was all over London at that time.

Good film with a plot that makes you concentrate and you have to use your brain, well worth seeing, but don't go if you want thrills and spills.

FAQ 3. Do I need to read the book first to understand the plot of the movie? What is the music in the trailers? What is the song when Peter Guillam attempts to steal the files? Details Edit. Release date January 6, United States. In the fictional version, MI6 is headed by Control John Hurt , who studies a series of intelligence leaks and becomes convinced there's a mole in the agency; the nature of the intelligence suggests it must come from high up, and Control narrows his list of suspects to five men close to him.

The movie introduces them one by one, each played by a familiar face in a film cast with iconic British actors. If you're wondering what happened to "Spy," that would be whoever turns out to be the mole. The film, set mostly in London in the early s, is bathed in browns, shadows and pale lighting.

All of the men show a lot of wear, none more than Control; John Hurt's face is weary and deeply lined, his eyes set deep out of the way of cigarette smoke, but lest you think that is entirely because of aging, I interviewed him in while he was filming "," and he looked much the same then.

As the film opens, he has learned that a Hungarian general who would know the mole's identity may be a possible defector. In a muted, serious conversation that will set the film's tone, he assigns Jim Prideaux Mark Strong to go to Budapest and talk to this man. That mission goes wrong and serves to alert the Soviets -- although the mole would already know Control was engaged in sniffing him out.

In the kerfuffle that follows, both Control and Smiley are dismissed from the service. Some time later, Control is dead from a heart attack, and Smiley is recalled from "retirement" to continue the search for the mole.

Now follows a series of paranoid meetings in sealed rooms, snatched conversations in obscure corners of London and flashbacks that may cast light on Smiley's investigation, although we cannot yet know for sure. All of this is superbly atmospheric in the hands of director Tomas Alfredson , who made the sober and effective vampire movie " Let the Right One In.

Alfredson's film is faithful to the tone set by the novel. I confess I was confused some of the time and lost at other times; the viewer needs to hold in mind a large number of characters, a larger number of events and an infinite number of possibilities. More ordinary spy movies provide helpful scenes in which characters brief each other as a device to keep the audience oriented.

I have every confidence that in this film, every piece of information is there and flawlessly meshes, but I can't say so for sure, perhaps because I don't have a mind suitable for espionage.

I enjoyed the film's look and feel, the perfectly modulated performances, and the whole tawdry world of spy and counterspy, which must be among the world's most dispiriting occupations. But I became increasingly aware that I didn't always follow all the allusions and connections. On that level, "Tinker Tailor" didn't work for me.

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from until his death in In , he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. John Hurt as Control.