I heard this was a.........

Depends on your taste.

It's a good drama and Cold War spy movie. It's not really a thriller or an action-spy movie. It's about deception, compromise, and a man's life. This is a slow-paced film, and if you're okay with that, you're okay with that. The drama comes from the life lived (or not) as much as from the espionage, although there is quite a bit of that, too.

If you dig spy fiction like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (book or film), this might be something you'd want to check out (although it's not as good as Le Carre's stuff).

If you want something with a bit more intensity to it, something like Spy Game with Pitt and Redford is maybe more to your taste. There's a bit more fire in that one.

It might depend on your mood, too. Sometimes one is in the mood for something slow and contemplative; at other times, not.