Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: Written by Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan, Directed by Tomas Alfredson
Description: Adapted from the John le Carré novel, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is the story of George Smiley (Gary Oldman), a recently retired MI6 agent still trying to adjust to a life outside the secret service.
When a disgraced spy reappears carrying information concerning a double agent at the heart of MI6, Smiley is pulled out of retirement and drawn back into the world of espionage he has only just left. Tasked with finding out which of his former colleagues has chosen to betray their country, Smiley finds evidence that narrows his search to four suspects – all experienced, trusted agents – but past histories, rivalries and friendships make it difficult to pinpoint which man has the motivation to eat away at the heart of The Circus.
This review is based on a theatrical viewing paid for myself
Lady-T’s Review:
If I had to describe Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in three words, they would be these: Evocative. Moody. Complex.
None of these are bad things, but I will be honest. Comparatively speaking, it’s not always an easy film to get your teeth into. It’s something of an antidote to the explosions and effects of the Bournes and Bonds of the spy genre, and it’s fair to say that it hinges on a level of unspoken subtlety that outright demands concentration from its audience. It is not the most emotive of films, nor is it always the simplest to follow. Reams of understanding are conveyed with subtle shifts of expression and barely-there nods which combined with the sparse and somewhat bleak cinematography make the flashes of real emotion, when they do finally shine through, all the more shocking for their intensity. It could be argued that it’s actually a bit of a slog, but I personally found it more than worth the effort.
It has a fantastic cast serving up uniformly nuanced performances, supported brilliantly by a richness of period detail that gives it a very definite sense of location and time. There are a plethora of tiny, incidental cultural references just neatly tucked into its scenery and I’ll admit to watching some of it in a bizarre haze of nostalgia for a decade I never actually lived through. There are some beautifully deft touches, like the old clear-sided red phone boxes and the wrapping on Smiley’s roll of Trebor mints, the latter of which had been lovingly restored to the green it was before four decades of re-branding interceded.
That said, it is not exactly the shiniest, nor prettiest of films. But then neither was it a shiny or especially pretty decade. The perpetual, looming threat of the Cold War suffuses it with chilly grottiness, peppered occasionally with sporadic sharp bursts of unflinchingly graphic cruelty. It is tremendously evocative and bleak and director Tomas Alfredson (Let The Right One In) has crafted from it a grand study of slow-building complexity. The climax itself is somehow all the more unbearably tense for the knowledge that there is no final explosion looming to relieve the pressure, just a very cleverly manipulated, intelligent sense of menace.
The original book is, of course, notoriously complex and difficult to adapt. Being unfamiliar with the original I can’t comment on what aspects have been excised but I felt that what was presented here made a cohesive and coherent stand-alone narrative. There are a couple of points I would have appreciated more clarification on but, considering the desperately convoluted nature of the book, I thought it was handled admirably.
I’m sure there will be some who could argue (justifiably, perhaps) that the film is slow almost to the point of torpor. It’s not entirely without validity, but what it purposefully lacks in physical spectacle it more than makes up for in leaping cerebral gymnastics. It’s not a film you can easily nip out in the middle of. Though with a cast like this why would you even want to?
Gary Oldman (Hannibal, Batman Begins) makes retired career spy Smiley very much his own; unreadable, pragmatic and almost terrifyingly calm even as he faces the spectre of taking apart the very institution he has spent his whole life working to protect. David Dencik is wonderfully prissy as the snivelling Esterhase while, fresh off the back of his Oscar for The King’s Speech, Colin Firth infuses the character of Haydon with an almost frighteningly appealing, laissez faire variety of easy charm.
In all honesty though it’s Guillam, played by Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, Third Star) that most perfectly compliments and contrasts against Oldman’s purposefully opaque rendering of Smiley. Both he and Inception star Tom Hardy are predominantly responsible for shouldering the emotional load of the film. Playing a younger generation less inured to repression it is only through them that the personal sacrifices made by their superiors can even be slightly reflected. Guillam’s inner conflict and his struggle to reconcile his loyalties with his ideals is quietly but powerfully conveyed. The scene where he is forced to push away his lover, for example, is a brief but heartbreaking dissolve from professional exterior to the rawness of the human cost smothered underneath it, and though the scene may be short, in context it is incredibly effective.
Toby Jones (Christopher And His Kind), Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes) and Ciarán Hinds (Rome) are all as dependable as you would expect and it’s great to see Kathy Burke (Nil By Mouth) back on the screen again, along with a brief appearance by John Hurt (Hellboy) as the increasingly paranoid Control.
As I said, it’s not the easiest viewing, but I think it’s ultimately rewarding and a perfect cure for the times when you’ve had more than enough of shiny explosive movies that go boom.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is on general release in the UK right now, and opens in the US on the 9th December
Reviews Elsewhere
Follow Us!