Fell asleep after 1/2 hour. Unlikely opening premise (would YOU go to a excessive party by that guy after knowing him a few minutes?) and zero action. This is supposed to be a thriller? Bah.

The novelty here seems to be that amateurs Professor Perry (Ewan McGregor) and Gail (Naomie Harris) agree to become involve in espionage because they feel it is the right thing to do.But "doing the right thing" doesn't really seem to cost them anything -- they sail through potentially lethal situations with ease. It feels like they are simply following a predetermined path and that no harm can come to them; so there's no reason to care what happens.All in all, a pretty pointless exercise.

College professor Perry MacKendrick (Ewan McGregor) and lawyer wife Gail are vacationing in Marrakech despite his cheating. He reluctantly accepts the mysterious Dima (Stellan Skarsgård)'s invitation to his daughter's birthday party. Dima reveals that he launders money for the Russian mob and recruits him to contact MI6 upon returning to London. British agent Hector (Damian Lewis) convinces Perry to meet up with Dima in Paris.I have trouble believing Perry would go to Paris. I have even more trouble believing that he would bring Gail. I have even more trouble believing that he would leave the museum in that guy's car. I can't explain how much trouble I have believing that he would take Gail on that trip. So it goes. It's difficult to see this every man taking obvious risks for someone he barely knows. These are big risks and worst, he's taking along his wife whom he just cheated on. There are ways to provide Perry with good personal reasons for his actions but this movie doesn't set them up. He is horribly naive. He needs to say smarter things so that he's not simply going along with Hector.This movie doesn't have the action to be thrilling. It's also not quite smart enough to be a good espionage drama. There are good aspects with some tension. The actors are all first rate. It could be rewritten with some better action set pieces to be exciting or it could elevate Hector's enemies to make a smart political espionage drama. It's not quite at that level.

Based on the John LeCarre novel and co-scripted by him.I always felt LeCarre had lost his way a bit after the whole Circus and Smiley's people thing. But this modern look at the Russian Mafia / oligarch scene is worth the price of admission. By no means a summer BLOCKBUSTER but a good tale well told with great photography and a well acted script.And the usual LeCarre twist at the end...