Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

I tried to get through the book twice before the movie came out and never got more than about halfway. So I at least knew the basics when I went to see it.

I shudder that the thought of trying to follow along without that background. There never really is any kind of "get the audience up to speed" conversation. I found it annoying that there wasn't one early in the movie, though I thought it was somewhat of a nice touch not to have one at the end, explaining what had happened, or how he figured it out.

Then again, I had to explain virtually every scene to my roommate after we walked out of the theater. He really had no idea what he was getting himself into when I suggested we go.

 

Yeah, but it wasn't really a "big-screen" movie, so I wouldn't be surprised if there are a bunch of people who never read the book who thought they might like to see it, but figured they wouldn't lose anything waiting for it to hit DVD or Netflix.