★★★★☆

I must say, The Waiting Time turned out to be surprisingly good. No, it’s not James Bond with beautiful women and lots of stuff blowing up, this is more along the lines of “Smiley’s People” with just a touch more action. It is more about the trade craft along with multiple story lines about things past which intertwine in the present.

Too many of today’s movies have great looking actors, zero plot, and massive special effects. It was nice to watch a movie with a few simple shoot outs, a quite reserved car chase and a roof run.

The Waiting Time starts out as a someone-did-something-bad and quickly becomes a who-done-something-else and the investigation quite a few tangential who-did-what stories which all kind of roll together. This is British spy writing at its best; not pretty people having sex to sell tickets.

Honestly, this movie is something I would expect to see on Masterpiece Theater. This movie had real writing behind it. One can’t really talk much more about it without giving too much of the plot away. This is old school spy craft with ordinary looking people.

If you like spy stories with decent twists and more plot than action, add The Waiting Time to your list.

For more movie rental ideas see list one and list two.