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Product Description ------------------- Cold war thriller, based on the best-selling novel by John Le Carré, in which a semi-retired intelligence officer is assigned the task of uncovering a high-ranking Soviet agent within MI6. When British agent Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy) discovers, courtesy of an affair, that there may be a Russian agent operating at a high level in MI6, it is clear that an investigation into the issue will be delicate matter. Enter George Smiley (Gary Oldman), an old hand in intelligence circles, and his associate, Peter Gulliam (Benedict Cumberbatch). The pair are assigned the task of tracking down the , but must do so under the radar of the MI6 leadership, for the very reason that they are all under suspicion... From .co.uk ----------- Adapted from John le Carré’s uniquely British 1973 espionage novel, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, is set in the analogue conditions of the Cold War, a time when cassette tape and Telex were your only gadgets and where middle-aged spies exchanged looks of cordial hatred--and the occasional loyalty--like Bond and Bourne exchange weapons, women and warm locations. Gary Oldman (Leon, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight) plays George Smiley, the former agent who’s called in from the cold to hunt down one of his own--a Soviet mole in the top ranks of the leaky secret service that runs MI5 and MI6. Once inside, his investigations are simultaneously professional and deeply personal: digging around for one double-crossing colleague selling secrets to the Russians only unearths another ing with his wife. Le Carré’s London hasn’t been updated so much as back-filled with autumnal 1970s design: brown and pumpkin patterns upholster the shabby little rooms and crooked staircases through which the spies pursue each other, while the supporting cast--John Hurt, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hardy, Kathy Burke, Mark Strong and a porcine Toby Jones--is regularly squeezed, often several titans of British cinema at a time, into ed British cars or shelf-sized offices. George Smiley has a natural home in Oldman, who, like Smiley, has a self-effacing control of his craft--hiding himself in outrageous villains or declining a credit entirely, as he did in Ridley Scott’s Hannibal. With its atmospheric drab and novelistic pace, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, is the kind of chamber-piece that suits showy ensemble performances, but Oldman’s turn as Smiley is the most subtle in recent history. --Leo Batchelor