Just back from TTSS. Oldman's performance was mightily infected by Guinness, especially the voice, I think Oldman himself acknowledged the fact on 5 Live today. Big shoes to step into. I saw the beeb original with mum when I was a schoolboy, 7 hour-long episodes I think, they had to condense a hell of a lot.
Cumberbatch brilliant , Toby Jones outstanding and the oddest shaped head in film, Mark Strong a little understated, much more was made of his relationship with the schoolboy in the book, it's the first chapter, and the person I was with said "Could someone with no past just turn up and be accepted as a teacher?" I said "he would have a cast-iron background made up by the circus", but most of all, the period detail. Budapest, Paris and London impeccably dressed as the seventies, the decade of tobacco-coloured interior decor, even the Wimpy bar was faithful, even the Trebor Chuffing Mints wrapper was faithful (in the most intense mint-eating scene in cinema history). Colin Firth, normally a charisma vacuum, was also brilliant. Anyone spot Le Carre himself in the office party scene?
Best film of the year.
