TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY (15) Lots of great acting, but not a lot of excitement

John Le Carre's 1974 espionage novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, set among the big players in the British Intelligence Service, met with great success when it was made into a 1979 television adaptation starring Alec Guinness.

Retaining the 70s setting, this big screen updating begins with Mark Strong's spy sent to Budapest by John Hurt's controller to meet the person who knows the identity of the double agent who holds a powerful position within British intelligence but is working for the Russians.

But he gets himself shot, and in flashback the blanks are filled in as George Smiley (Gary Oldman) is brought out of retirement to find, as Hurt says, the mole right at the top of the circus. He's known to be one of several high-ranking agents, among them Colin Firth, Ciaran Hinds and Toby Jones, who have been designated Tinker, Tailor, Soldier and so on.

When this is good it can be very good, and it is such an overwhelmingly strong group of actors that the attention is held even when events on screen are, shall we say, minimalist.

And what's best about it are the performances, none more so than Oldman, who for the first 15 minutes or so of the film, doesn't say a word.

Everything is in his body language, his gestures and glances, and though when he does finally speak there's a hint that he's doing a Guinness impression, it's certainly not a distraction from a riveting portrayal.

Subtlety is the key in everything here, but as a consequence it suffers as a thriller, lacking the flair and cinematic pizzazz that may have been expected from the director of Let the Right One In.

It is full of interesting conversations and enigmatic phrases, but so deliberately paced that patience can be tested, and as far removed from a typical big-screen spy caper as you can get.

It's more of a museum piece than a thriller, a stuffy parade of dull, shabby little men in grey suits, dedicated to paperwork and one-upmanship, largely focussing on how empty and pathetic their lives have become.

But as the layers of the puzzle are added, it does gain traction and grips steadily without ever coming close to actually providing any excitement.

Director: Tomas Alfredson

Running time: 127 mins

30 MINUTES OR LESS (15) Slapdash action comedy is a bit of a drag

The body-swap comedy gets trotted out for the first time in a while as married Jason Bateman and his stoner slacker pal Ryan Reynolds switch identities with each other after a drunken night.

Most of the attempted fun comes from them trying to cope with each other's jobs, with Bateman a lawyer trying to close a big deal and Reynolds a struggling actor.

There's a desperate search for laughs in situations that rely on vulgarity for the sake of it but have no idea how to use it effectively, with an excess of swearing that's not funny and baby poop gags that went out with Three Men and a Baby a quarter of a century ago.

Reynolds doesn't quite have the comedy chops of Bateman, but between them they just about keep it afloat, even though it's stretched and under-developed.

Director: David Dobkin

Running time: 112 mins

TOMBOY (U) Wafer-thin but endearing drama with a fine young cast

Young Michael has just moved to a new Paris neighbourhood, and he quickly goes about making a bunch of new friends.

But Michael is really Laure, and the longer she goes without revealing the truth, the more difficult it will be for them to accept her as a girl.

It's a simple set-up for a wafer-thin but endearing drama, during which not a great deal actually happens, as the kids play and fight and do all the things that children do.

But every one of them is a fully realised and very well-drawn character, and it is held together by the naturalistic work of all the fine young cast, though special mention should go to the quite wonderful film debut performance of Zoe Heran, left, as Michael/ Laure.

Director: Celine Sciamma

Running time: 82mins

YOU INSTEAD (15) Despite a grungy charm, T in the Park film experiment is a failure

Filmed entirely at the T in the Park festival in 2010, this underwhelming drama breaks into a story of sorts when a member of an American band ends up handcuffed to a British girl for a night of incidents and arguments that follows rom-com conventions.

It's the sort of plot device you might see on a children's TV drama, and one that lends itself to little of interest.

The sheer scale of the endeavour makes it visually arresting, and it has a certain grungy charm and a couple of moments of spontaneous fun, but mostly it's just a bunch of annoying people in the mud and rain.

It's not so much a film, as a companion piece for festivalgoers, an experiment to see if a movie can be shot in a couple of days.

In that regard, at least it's been proven that it can't.

Director: David Mackenzie

Running time: 80mins