Review: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

in

Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a spy thriller based on a book by John le Carré (who serves as an executive producer of the movie). The film boasts a large cast of excellent pedigree, but a plodding pace and confusing timeline left me cold. The temperature in the theatre at Alamo South Lamar during the screening also left me cold -- perhaps it was to reinforce the Cold War-era setting? 

The film opens in 1973, when Control (John Hurt) sends an operative (Mark Strong) to Budapest for a meeting with a Communist general who may turn. The operation is botched, and in the fallout, Control and his associate Smiley (Gary Oldman) are fired from "The Circus" (the British secret information service). A year later, Smiley is asked by a high-up bureaucrat (Simon McBurney, Friends with Money) to investigate Control's theory that there is a mole in the service feeding information to the Russians.  Smiley is assisted by former co-worker Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock) and Mendel (Roger Lloyd-Pack, The Vicar of Dibley).

Meanwhile, there are other storylines going on. There's something called Operation Witchcraft, headed up by Smiley's former colleague Percy Alleline (Toby Jones) -- as a sidenote, I did love that at the end of the street where this operation is based, there's graffiti on a wall stating, "THE FUTURE IS FEMALE." Is this a shout out to the 1970s feminism movement? But back to the story -- there's also a scalphunter named Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy, Inception) on the run after falling for a Russian baddie's girlfriend in Istanbul.

You would think that these multiple plotlines would mean a fast-paced movie, but unfortunately, this is not so. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy moves along so slowly, moments without dialogue seem to last an eternity. This is a dense, cerebral spy film (and gory! Oh, the scene with the disemboweled man in the tub). Ricki Tarr's story comes in about halfway through the movie, and that's about the busiest the film gets.

It may have just been the print that we were shown at the preview, but there are multiple scenes where the picture is hazy enough to be distracting. The muted colors in the setting and wardrobe don't serve to make things any clearer. Neither do the timeline switches; sometimes it's difficult to discern which is present and which is past. It's all somewhat murky.

Gary Oldman's stoic performance as Smiley is as great as you expect from Oldman, and Cumberbatch plays a strong supporting role. Colin Firth's Bill Haydon gets some background, but Ciaran Hinds is sadly underused. They play former colleagues of Smiley's, both suspected of being the mole (along with three other characters). There are so many powerhouse actors in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but a good number of the characters don't ever get fleshed out. I went to the bathroom and missed Laura Carmichael's short cameo (she's Lady Edith in Downton Abbey) as an archive secretary.  

The score by Alberto Iglesias is a fine complement to the film. The theme that plays during the opening credits, as Smiley and Control leave the building they have worked in for years, is haunting. There is much unrealized potential in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy -- I really wished I liked it more.

Yuch - Talk about overblown,

Yuch - Talk about overblown, way too pretentious and just way too many random scenes that were completely unnecessary.
Really wanted to love this - couldn't stay awake.

Ignore "Anonymous"

Overblown? This is about as lean as the story could possibly get. Pretentious? No, it just assumed you could follow the story without handing it all to you on a plate, and assumed you could understand a few basic subtexts and historical references. In other words it didn't insult your intelligence. Finally, no scene in the movie was "completely unnecessary". Every frame served to further our understanding of the story, the characters and the context. You don't have to like this movie, but at least come up with a proper argument.