| Description |
The long-awaited feature film version of John le Carré’s classic
bestselling novel. The time is 1973. The Cold War of the mid-20th
Century continues to damage international relations. Britain’s Secret
Intelligence Service (SIS), a.k.a. MI6 and code-named the Circus, is
striving to keep pace with other countries’ espionage efforts and to
keep the U.K. secure. The head of the Circus, known as Control (John
Hurt), personally sends dedicated operative Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong)
into Hungary. But Jim’s mission goes bloodily awry, and Control is
forced out of the Circus — as is his top lieutenant, George Smiley
(Gary Oldman), a career spy with razor-sharp senses. Estranged from
his absent wife Ann, Smiley is soon called in to see undersecretary
Oliver Lacon (Simon McBurney); he is to be rehired in secret at the
government’s behest, as there is a gnawing fear that the Circus has
long been compromised by a double agent, or mole, working for the
Soviets and jeopardizing England. Supported by younger agent Peter
Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch), Smiley parses Circus activities past
and present. In trying to track and identify the mole, Smiley is
haunted by his decades-earlier interaction with the shadowy Russian
spy master Karla. The mole’s trail remains cold until maverick field
agent Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy) unexpectedly contacts Lacon. While
undercover in Turkey, Ricki has fallen for a betrayed married woman,
Irina (Svetlana Khodchenkova), who claims to possess crucial
intelligence. Separately, Smiley learns that Control narrowed down the
list of mole suspects to five men. They are the ambitious Percy
Alleline (Toby Jones), whom he had code-named Tinker; suavely
confident Bill Haydon (Colin Firth), dubbed Tailor; stalwart Roy Bland
(Ciarán Hinds), called Soldier; officious Toby Esterhase (David
Dencik), dubbed Poor Man; and — Smiley himself. Even before the
startling truth is revealed, the emotional and physical tolls on the
players enmeshed in the deadly international spy game will escalate…
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