The early reviews are in and critics are showering rave reviews for Tomas Alfredson's spy drama. Based on the book by John Le Carre, the movie is masterfully held at the helm and keeps the audience on their collective toes.

Your heart will never stop pounding for a second as this mystery within a mystery unfolds.

Mr. le Carré's seventh novel and the first in his Karla trilogy, "Tinker, Tailor" are set against a geopolitical moment that is charmingly old-fashioned. Set in a time when rival agents had names like Boris or well, a world where spies are this passionate and heavy.

This is a time where ideological and political stakes make themselves intensely clear. It's a world of stark polarities-secrets and lies, shadows and light, illusions and truths, loyalties and betrayals.

Starring the brutal elegance and understatement of Gary Oldman (who plays the lead George Smiley) and Colin Firth, this movie is not for casual viewers. Living an untimely and somewhat bumbling retirement, George Smiley is abruptly brought back to life by his former boss Lacon with an ultra-secret mission: find the double agent in the ranks of the British Secret Service.

Which one of them could it be?

With that in mind, Smiley goes on a journey through the labyrinthine world of the British spy service layer by layer as he pursues the mole controlled by the mysterious Russian spymaster Karla.

The story is somewhat based on the infamous spy scandal of the early '60s. "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian) due to some gun violence and images of (off-screen) murder, including a disembowelment.

However, all the violence portrayed on film only serves to play into the gorgeous, melancholy backdrop of this triumph of a film.