Do not, under any circumstances, miss this film - and that's order, from the top, from 'C', himself! However, to be fair, if you know the book backwards, forwards and sideways, as for example, Peter Hitchens does, then you will hate it! (I provide a link to his lacerating review but urge you not to read it until after you have seen the film yourself.) I do not know the book that well, it has been years since I have read it. I watched the TV series, enthralled, when it was on, and subsequently I have watched the DVD set of that series. It stands, in my mind, as one the very best TV dramas of all time.
Film, obviously, is a very different medium from an episodic TV series and must be judged on its own merits (or demerits) without comparison to TV. Without any hesitation I place this film up there in my Top Ten all-time favourites. Admittedly, there are approximately 20 films in my Top Ten but, hey, who's counting? The acting is nigh on faultless. The atmosphere of early '70s London is captured effortlessly. The depiction of a once great service slithering helplessly into decline as a mirror image of not-so-Great Britain is executed with merciless accuracy. I will not go into tedious detail on the many little touches which bring this complicated film to life, suffice to say that Alfredson has a very acute and sure eye for filming. And above and beyond all that, I was moved, genuinely, gulpingly, moved, at certain points in the film. Yes, you have to work at it because to describe the plot as convoluted is to understate it by a long way and at just over two hours it is a marathon not a sprint. But it's worth it, honestly, it's worth every minute.
So, you will rendez-vous at your local cinema at the earliest possible moment and remember - my spies are everywhere!
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