I was so disappointed with the film. The opening scene was so lovely. Harking back to the old days of black and white movie classics. I had expected the storytelling and script to be so much better. I prefer to watch European detective stories because they usually offer either a more realistic angle or a plot or delight the audience with fantastically witty humour which the American thrillers often lack. Not so this time. I wonder if Mr. Hare created this boring and stiffly acted out drivel just to bring about his own political world view on Palestinians and thus have this silly off handed go at the Israelis. These actors could have done so much better than this. What a waste of their fantastic talent! I fell asleep at then end and woke up just in time to see the last comment made by MI5 officer Johnny Worricker (Bill Nighy). "Change the channel" "I wanna hear some Jazz". My sentiments entirely! Don't bother watching this when you could be spending your time listening to some awesome jazz instead. Oh and the 1 point I have given this movie went to, you guessed it, to the jazz of course.

Take two twelve bottle cases of wine and stack one on top of the other.. then try carrying them both in one arm, while you're carrying something else in the other.. oh yea, and make it look totally easy, like there was nothing inside the two boxes.. (cause obviously there wasn't)!! And that's only one example of just how absurd parts two and three of this trilogy eventually become. Page Eight was really good enough (gorgeous RW), and I was so looking forward to the other two segments. But it was like night and day.. as if part one was made in Britain, and two and three in the US. The 7 rating is for part one.. two and three deserve no more than a 5.. and that's being overly generous.

Top notch BBC production from playwright David Hare, who writes and directs this cerebral spy thriller. It features an amazing cast led by Bill Nighy in top form. supported by two genuine movie stars, Rachel Weisz and Ralph Fiennes, as well as a collection of superb supporting British acting talent. There's not a lot of action; this is the thinking wo/man's spy film, with much character development of people who think and analyze for a living. But Hare's gift for dialog makes for a smart and sly script, and Nighy has a field day with his weathered, cynical, intelligent intelligence man. The suspense comes from an ongoing and escalating battle of the wits, not gunplay or fight scenes, so if you want James Bond with explosions and girls in bikinis, you'll be let down. But if you like thoughtful wannabe John LeCarre-ish stuff, you'll probably enjoy this a lot.

The film starts of with a very snazzy title sequence and unveils a starry cast list led by Bill Nighy which will begin a trilogy of films dealing with this MI5 agent.Johnny Worricker out art collecting, jazz loving analyst stumbles across important information on Page 8 of a dossier he has been given to read by his boss (Michael Gambon) who incidentally is also married to his ex wife. The dossier implicates the British government to unsavoury practises in the war on terror with the American government such as rendition and torture.Johnny also becomes friendly with a neighbour in his flat (Rachel Weisz) who wants his help to get rid of a boring date and they become friendly but Weisz had a brother who was killed in the Middle East and she is too close to home for comfort.The film is essentially a stage drama between different protagonists despite location shooting as they deal with themes and rules of espionage in the manner of a John Le Carre novel. The rules of the old is making way for the rules of the new and some are finding this hard to stomach.Leading the charge on the war on terror is the Prime Minister (Ralph Fiennes) who enters the proceedings with a swagger surrounded by his henchmen. We have a Home Secretary wanting more draconian laws. It is clear the film is set during the New Labour administration and writer/director David Hare is a left winger who likes to take pot shots at the type of left he despises although in this case he has good cause to be critical.At the end Worricker has upset the Prime Minister, the rules of the game in MI5 has suddenly changed and he finds himself wondering where to go next.The film is well acted and tense in places but it is also too wordy and dense which means its not always as stylish as its tile sequence.