Metacritic Movie Ratings
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Reviews

A sample of reviews from critics across the country.

• 90

  out of 100

  VarietyLeslie Felperin

  An inventive, meaty distillation of Le Carre's 1974 novel, picture turns hero George Smiley's hunt for a mole within Blighty's MI6 into an incisive examination of Cold War ethics, rich in both contempo resonance and elegiac melancholy.

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• 90

  out of 100

  Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan

  Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is an enormously impressive piece of work.

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• 90

  out of 100

  The New York TimesManohla Dargis

  A pleasurably sly and involving puzzler - a mystery about mysteries within mysteries.

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• 83

  out of 100

  Entertainment Weekly

  A puzzle of a highly rarefied order. At times it's enthrallingly clever and subtle; at others it's borderline incomprehensible.

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• 83

  out of 100

  Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman

  A puzzle of a highly rarefied order. At times it's enthrallingly clever and subtle; at others it's borderline incomprehensible.

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• 80

  out of 100

  TimeRichard Corliss

  At two hours, the film version is a third the miniseries' length, requiring severe compression by screenwriters Peter Straughan (The Debt) and Bridget O'Connor, which they've accomplished smartly.

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• 80

  out of 100

  Village VoiceJ. Hoberman

  The latest Tinker Tailor is, in some ways, more explicit regarding various characters' sexual proclivities than was the miniseries. It's also more concise, but what's lost is George's pathos.

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• 75

  out of 100

  USA TodayClaudia Puig

  The film employs a largely British cast that is perhaps the most impressive ensemble of any movie this year.

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• 75

  out of 100

  ReelViewsJames Berardinelli

  Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy may be the best possible movie version of the story, but it illustrates that the big screen is not the ideal medium for a tale of this complexity.

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• 75

  out of 100

  Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert

  I enjoyed the film's look and feel, the perfectly modulated performances, and the whole tawdry world of spy and counterspy, which must be among the world's most dispiriting occupations. But I became increasingly aware that I didn't always follow all the allusions and connections. On that level, "Tinker Tailor" didn't work for me.

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