If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

During the Cold War, the British Intelligence receives a blurred photograph from East Germany taken from Hamburg and Director LeClerc (Ralph Richardson) believes that they are missiles. Their agent Taylor King (Timothy West), who receives a film that might clarify the detail from a pilot in Finland, is found dead on the road and the police believe that he was accidentally killed in a hit-and-run. LeClerc meets the Polish defector Fred Leiser (Christopher Jones), who jumped overboard from a ship expecting to have asylum and stay with his British girlfriend (Susan George) that is pregnant, and decides to recruit him to cross the border and spy the Eat German facility to check the missiles. In return, he would have salary, insurance and political asylum. Leiser is trained by the agent and family man John Avery (Anthony Hopkins) and soon he finds that his girlfriend has had an abortion. When Leiser crosses the border, he stumbles with the local Anna (Pia Degermark) and they stay together in the beginning of a dangerous journey where he is just a pawn in a war game."The Looking Glass War" is a dated thriller with a disappointing story. The characters are poorly developed and it is hard to understand the motivation of Leiser in his assignment after discovering that his girlfriend had forced an abortion. He is neither British nor an idealistic man to risk his life in a suicidal mission. Actually it is difficult to understand who he is since he is capable to kill two men in cold blood, slap the face of his girlfriend and let Anna with him knowing that his mission is compromised. The betrayal of LeClerc is the great plot point in the story but also difficult to understand why he plots all operation apparently to justify his agency and get rid off a defector. In the end, there is no consequence receiving or not the message from Leiser. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): Not Available

The Cold War era was highly resourceful with fictional (sometimes real) material, books and movies on espionage, ranging from cheap or fun entertainment to complicated and intricate plots full of suspense. John Le Carré is a master of the latter, at least when it comes to writing novels, and usually they turn into great movies, let us not forget the recent "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", not only a resurrection of the genre but it also was a complete modernization in style, treatment and editing without losing the looks and the good old charm of the 1960's and 1970's productions (and I can't wait for Alfredson/Oldman re-team in "Smiley's People", though they're jumping my favorite from Karla Trilogy "The Honorable Schoolboy" because it's just too long and too complex to be filmed, and not even BBC produced it as a miniseries during the Alec Guinness era as Smiley). So, "The Looking Glass War" broke my heart because it's unlike anything made Le Carré; first time director Frank Pierson didn't make a good adaptation over with an oversimplification of what could be a good story if elements were preserved and I couldn't care for the characters, too simple and badly written.And they couldn't get a more clichéd story: the British intelligence discovers that the Soviet Union is relocating some missiles, and in order to ruin their plans the command decide to send a spy from one German to another to mess with everything. The chosen one is the mysterious Leiser (Christopher Jones, dubbed here by another actor, who sounds exactly like James Dean), not a traditional secret agent, he's simply a dangerous German type they got out of prison. In trade for his cooperation, he's gonna be able help his pregnant girlfriend, now protect the MI6, Circus or whatever. Lieser's protégé, trainer and mentor in this mission is John Avery (Anthony Hopkins, the best thing in this movie), a man who is fully committed with his job and tasks, eventually sacrificing his quiet family life. After some strangeness between both men, they finally agree with each other and now Avery might be the only person capable of protecting Lieser if anything goes wrong. And off the young man goes to Germany in risky situations.What bothered me wasn't the lack of surprises due to its awfully clichéd proposition and engineering of situations; the problem lies in the characters, completely one dimensional, unlikeable and lacking in real reasoning for their motivations or they're reduced to one basic premise - to defeat the Soviet villains; Lieser, the anti-hero is just a hard-faced killing machine who doesn't generate any kind of sympathy from the audience. It's really difficult to understand why he's going to this suicide mission - the reason I wrote above isn't one of them as evidenced when he slaps his girlfriend during a simple conversation. Worst of all, he has zero charisma, his thick accent complicates things even more, only saves that the man is a real hunky. Though I haven't read the novel, I know that veteran spy George Smiley (Le Carré's most famous creation) is in it, very briefly. I don't know how important he is in the story but we could use his brilliancy and wisdom in this movie, he's always interesting despite the melancholia and his whispered speech manner. But then again, nothing could have saved this movie: the pace is wrong; the foggy and mysterious sceneries from classics like "The Man Who Came In From the Cold" are changed to colorful prairies and beaches, exuberant but very misplaced; and here's a story about almost nothing. In the end, it's all about betrayal and getting rid off an unpleasant person to a dead mission. So what? There's no resonance in that, there's no profoundity in that. It's useless. It feels like Mr. Pierson wanted to give us an ordinary and poor view to the meticulous and intriguing world of Le Carré. Result: weak movie with enjoyable parts. 5/10

Most of the reviews I have given are of films that I saw at the cinema upon its release and have then recently watched again. However, THE LOOKING GLASS WAR is a movie that I never got around to watching at the pictures, therefore, I decided to shell out 3 pounds and buy the DVD. I must say that I am glad I did as I quite enjoyed it. A young Christopher Jones plays a Polish seaman who is recruited by British Intelligence to go into East Germany to check out some missiles in return for being given leave to stay in the UK. The acting was better than I thought it would be and the storyline was OK. I liked the jazzy soundtrack as well. Not a bad film at all and worth the 3 quid I paid.

No, the movie didn't suck me in. I got sucked into watching it by some highly favorable comments. I should have paid more attention to the ratings.If you want to watch LeCarre, there are much better examples than this. The pacing is completely off in this movie; as soon as something interesting starts, it is truncated for irrelevant meanderings. Apparently the director wanted to make this a "mood piece" rather than an action movie, and as a result, it never develops any momentum or suspense.On balance, this is just a somewhat disappointing period piece. Watchable, but nothing more.