The world of espionage is never black and white. Nor, in this movie, is it even grey. No, the world of George Smiley and Co is nicotine brown.
And green, the kind of turgid municipal green that is kicked off chunky wrought iron banisters in the echoing stairwells of an Eastern European tower block.
Director Tomas Alfredson has brought his melancholic Swedish sensibilities to John Le Carre's tale of mole hunts and betrayal and he begins with an advantage - he has conjured a '70s atmosphere that is so authentic, drab and penetrating that the dark of the cinema may well be a result of the three-day week.
The blend of the familiar and the foreign are the perfect hue.
Yes, this is the height of the Cold War when paranoia sends the "circus" (MI6) into a spiralling frenzy that matches the whirl of their pipe smoke.
John Le Carre created a classic with his labyrinthine tale and the director, wisely, steps back, puts his camera in the shadows and lets the story do the work.
The adaptation requires some quart-into-pint-pot gymnastics but this only aids the sense of things undone or half-known.
Scenes end before they have begun and the conventions of self-revelation are thrown overboard, leaving only curt, studied dialogue from people who are trained to give away nothing for a living.
At the heart of this layered piece is George Smiley although his eerie stillness suggests the absence of a pulse. He is brought back from the cold to complete the mole hunt that his boss C (John Hurt) began, but botched.
Mild-mannered Smiley is an absence, a placid career civil servant with a man-trap mind. He is a classic of modern literature and Gary Oldman is more than his match.
Oldman imbues Smiley with the suggestion of a hidden life - world weary, dutiful yet neglected, disappointments forming his permafrost. The subtleties of character emerge from a cadence, a look, a muted gesture. He is an engrossing presence.
His formidable hare-and-tortoise comes up against some formidable characters embodied by some formidable character actors - Colin Firth, Toby Jones, Ciaran Hinds, Mark Strong, Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch - making for some sumptuous, sparse jousting.
This is taut and tortuous stuff. The aching slowness becomes hypnotic, creating mountains of tension out of molehills of action.
Alfredson's lo-fi production allows the cast to do more with less and they produce an impeccably nuanced ensemble performance that rises to the challenge of Le Carre's classic in a manner never likely to be bettered.
– From September 2011
