Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

How ruddy dare they try to surpass the iconic Alec Guinness portrayal of... nah, just kidding. This review is written for those coming to Tinker Tailor fresh, without having seen the critically lauded 1970s TV series or read the John Le Carre book on which it was based.

Swedish director Tomas Alfredson, who so successfully brought art-house vampires to (un)life in 2008, here proves that the moody restraint and sense of incipient danger that hung over every frame of that picture were no fluke. A contender for top ten films of 2011, this is a spy thriller that can hardly have required much of the stunt and wirework beloved of the genre, certainly compared to your Bonds and your Bournes. And yet the impeccable composition in Tinker Tailor offers images that linger in the mind's eye long after the shaky-cam Sturm und Drang of a more action packed adventure has faded from memory.

If there were such a thing as Fantasy Acting League, this cast is very close to the dreamteam one might choose to assemble (if we were restricted to men only - this is largely a boys' club film). Gary Oldman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Toby Jones, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Tom Hardy...  it's a cast list that's music to the ears with never a false note struck. All involved look just so in pitch-perfect costume design whose palette chimes with a drab London, draped in a Bakelite dinge that positively screams 'Cold War'. Or, since we're talking Cold War espionage, whispers 'Cold War' before knifing you in the back at a compromised safehouse.

You could easily spend the runtime mesmerised by your admiration for this film's aesthetic - though to allow yourself to become too enraptured would be to lose the thread of the flashback-filled plot. Never has a fictional portrayal of the secret service been more worthy of Q's customary admonishment to its most (paradox alert) famous undercover agent: "pay attention, 007!" Here, characters and audience alike must keep a tight grip on the thread of events or risk getting lost in a maze of plot and counterplot. It's an enjoyable sensation if you've seen too many films lately whose conclusion can be spotted ten miles off without the aid of sophisticated surveillance equipment.