Richard Burton, an actor I admire, is the star of The Spy Who Came In from the Cold. I was a little uncertain if he could carry a movie on his own since the only other movies I've seen him in have him alongside other silver screen greats (Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Deborah Kerr and Ava Gardner in The Night of the Iguana, Peter O'Toole in Becket). So does he hold his own? Well, yes and no. Yes because he gives a very good performance, no because the story falters periodically throughout the movie.
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold is based on a work by John le Carre. Having previously seen The Constant Gardener, I have come to this conclusion: John le Carre's work bores me. He has good concepts in his stories, but it seems he doesn't know how to make them appealing to the masses.
That said however, I did like The Spy Who Came in from the Cold but barely. (I'm not sure, but I think I dozed off when I watched it.) It's not great, but it's pretty good.
My Rating: ****
Oooh. "John LeCarre's work bores me." Read him sometime. I'd start with the "Karla Trilogy." The thing is, LeCarre takes on moralistic tales in a world of amoral men and women, who are not dashing, chasing and shooting—they are grubby and narcissistic and all-too-human. Check out "The Russia House" sometime. Not a bad flick of a great book. It's basically "Casablanca" where the problems of two little people DO amount to a hill of beans in a crazy world far removed from the sensibilities of WWII: where honor is non-existent, loyalty can be bought, and the Good Guys and the Bad Guys are indistinguishable. Great cast, too.
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