The Less Deceived

Finally watched Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy all the way through, wide awake. The screen on the return flight to Singapore was bigger than the one on the way there, which helped, but it was the quality of the film that held me. Oldman's Smiley is excellent - somehow harder and more dangerous than the Guinness vintage, but beautifully underplayed, restrained. But every performance is excellent.

Great faces everywhere. Real ones, I mean. Raddled. Ordinary. Nice sense of period and place.

Wonderfully paced, with a genuine sense of unease in several scenes that gets under the skin. Somehow more down-to-earth than the cerebral BBC version.

Leaves you wanting to be a spy as you know you have the necessary capacity for ruthless deception.