Here’s a treat for all you Cold War enthusiasts. Very dark, spare, cloak-and-dagger. The anti-spy thriller–a mission difficult, but not impossible, of ferreting out the mole at the top of MI6 somewhere deep in the bowels of the seventies when everyone was afraid of everyone else and schoolchildren practiced drop drills in case their school got nuked.
I enjoyed this movie for its slow pace, its dark demeanor, and the presence of the beautiful Colin Firth. Ciaran Hinds is a joy to watch, even in the limited, almost mute role he has here. Gary Oldman is wonderful as always. Tom Hardy is wonderful.
This movie will be enjoyed for the slow, studied, chess-game pace by people (like me) who like that sort of thing. Everyone else will see MI4. Nothing explodes here, no one throws himself off a thousand-foot-tall building or runs through a sandstorm, and world peace is not hanging by a slender thread. Well, actually, I suppose it is, but you have to look closely to see that. The good guy wins, the bad guy dies.