This film is set in London in the 1970s. Apparently, the plot is about the British Secret Service trying to a find a double agent in their ranks who also works for the Soviet Union . The film is based on the novel by John Le Carré.
I truly have no idea what the hell this movie was about. Scene after scene, the execution looked fine but I was lost most of the way. I tried to understand the plot by reading it on Wikipedia but I was still confused.
As the film is highly acclaimed, I felt I had missed out on something until I read an excerpt from a dissenting reviewer Peter Hitchens of The Mail on Sunday who wrote that the plot would be too baffling for viewers who had not read the book, and that the film's makers had "needlessly messed it up". Another quote: "Unfortunately, the plot is every bit as bewildering with an overload of spy-speak, a few too many characters to keep track of and a final act that ends with a whimper, rather than a bang."
So perhaps I would have gained more if I had read the novel. Likewise, this film is a condensed version of a previous adaptation that had been made into a seven-part TV mini-series. In the past, I did attempt a Le Carré novel in the 1980s, "The Little Drummer Girl" and gave up after about fifty pages. Maybe this is just not my thing though I've enjoyed other spy movies in the past. - dbamateurcritic.
I truly have no idea what the hell this movie was about. Scene after scene, the execution looked fine but I was lost most of the way. I tried to understand the plot by reading it on Wikipedia but I was still confused.
As the film is highly acclaimed, I felt I had missed out on something until I read an excerpt from a dissenting reviewer Peter Hitchens of The Mail on Sunday who wrote that the plot would be too baffling for viewers who had not read the book, and that the film's makers had "needlessly messed it up". Another quote: "Unfortunately, the plot is every bit as bewildering with an overload of spy-speak, a few too many characters to keep track of and a final act that ends with a whimper, rather than a bang."
So perhaps I would have gained more if I had read the novel. Likewise, this film is a condensed version of a previous adaptation that had been made into a seven-part TV mini-series. In the past, I did attempt a Le Carré novel in the 1980s, "The Little Drummer Girl" and gave up after about fifty pages. Maybe this is just not my thing though I've enjoyed other spy movies in the past. - dbamateurcritic.