Pro: stylish, atmospheric, characters not bad, intriguing premises.
Con: too many ridiculous gaffes I don't ask for realism, only that the gaps be not insultingly obvious while you watch. There are many films that while objectively silly at least maintain a kind of internal believability, but The Game fails even simple threshold tests. The huge strains on logic range from the everyday work of spies to the most fundamental twists of the plot. And it's too bad, because if you like Cold War drama, this one seemed so promising, a sort of Tinker Tailor with better looking actors.
SPOILERS AHEAD! For example, why does MI5 use agents clearly already known to the KGB to do not-at-all-subtle surveillance? And haven't these people even heard of disguises? My god, they don't even bother to change their clothes! Joe Lamb is always wearing that same overcoat! And just how did a bunch of Soviet sleeper agents get to be in multiple British government positions without apparently ever going through even the most rudimentary of background checks? Seriously, we're asked to believe that none of these functionaries was vetted? That no one noticed they didn't exist until they were 20 or so? Okay, obviously British security has had some major lapses of the Kim Philby variety, but I think even your basic personnel office would catch on to this situation!
Con: too many ridiculous gaffes I don't ask for realism, only that the gaps be not insultingly obvious while you watch. There are many films that while objectively silly at least maintain a kind of internal believability, but The Game fails even simple threshold tests. The huge strains on logic range from the everyday work of spies to the most fundamental twists of the plot. And it's too bad, because if you like Cold War drama, this one seemed so promising, a sort of Tinker Tailor with better looking actors.
SPOILERS AHEAD! For example, why does MI5 use agents clearly already known to the KGB to do not-at-all-subtle surveillance? And haven't these people even heard of disguises? My god, they don't even bother to change their clothes! Joe Lamb is always wearing that same overcoat! And just how did a bunch of Soviet sleeper agents get to be in multiple British government positions without apparently ever going through even the most rudimentary of background checks? Seriously, we're asked to believe that none of these functionaries was vetted? That no one noticed they didn't exist until they were 20 or so? Okay, obviously British security has had some major lapses of the Kim Philby variety, but I think even your basic personnel office would catch on to this situation!