Stepping into the shoes of Alec Guinness, Gary Oldman, in a performance of restrained inscrutability, captures perfectly the character of John le Carré’s seasoned spy George Smiley...

So beautifully executed and so visually absorbing and so atmospherically hypnotic that I wonder this: would it have been awfully greedy to have hoped to have wholly understood it, too?

Le Carré enthusiasts will be left wanting another hour or so of filmic flesh on this skin-and-bones telling.

While it’s deliberate and sometimes dry, O’Connor and Straughan’s script is tight, structured, and clearly intends to make the audience work right alongside of Smiley.