Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (B or 3/4 stars)
'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' (written by Peter Straughan & his late wife Bridget O'Connor, and directed by Tomas Alfredson, Let the Right One In) is impeccably made, superbly acted, is smartly written, annnnnd a touch too dramatically opaque for my liking. 'TTSS' (as I'll refer to it) takes place in 1973 London during the Cold War. Action starts when the ailing head of British Intelligence, Control (John Hurt), resigns after an operation in Budapest goes horribly awry (agent Jim Prideaux, played by Mark Strong, is gunned down). It transpires that Control believed 1 of 4 senior agents - "Tinker" Percy Alleline (Toby Jones), "Tailor" Bill Haydon (Colin Firth), "Soldier" Roy Bland (Ciaran Hinds), or "Spy" Toby Esterhase (David Dencik) - to be a Soviet mole in the upper echelon of MI6 (code-named 'The Circus'), and that the Budapest operation was an attempt to sniff out which one it was!
Fellow agent George Smiley (Gary Oldman) had been forced into retirement by the departure of Control, but is asked by a gov't figure (Simon McBurney) to investigate a story told to him by rogue agent, Ricky Tarr (Tom Hardy), that there was a mole. Smiley believes that the failure in Budapest + the suspicious success of Operation Witchcraft (a source of Soviet Intelligence) confirms this, & takes up the task of finding the mole. Through the painstaking efforts of agent Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch), Smiley gets info that leads him to Jim Prideaux, the agent at the heart of the Budapest fiasco. With his razor-sharp senses & ghost-like ability to spy, Smiley pieces the puzzle together; leading him to the true intentions of Operation Witchcraft and the true identity of the mole.
'TTSS' is pretty much the anti-Bond movie. It's dry as a bone. There are no bombs, chases, gadgets, explosions, stunts, or supermodels parading across the screen. And George Smiley is the antithesis of Bond; as written in the source material by author John Le Carre (later made into a British miniseries). Smiley is quiet, cool, antisocial, yet brilliant. He wears no gun. But he can match spyspeak & wits with anyone. His words act as bullets.
This film is of a high caliber, for sure. I liked the director's bleak sense of Cold War England (he also mastered this for Sweden with Let the Right One). Feelings of paranoia & anxiety permeate the screen; it is almost impossible to discern who to trust. The cinematography is superb; lots of shadows & great use of a gray/green/brown color palette. The period production design & costumes place you RIGHT into Cold War England -- the visual style seeps into everything. And Alberto Iglesias' score is stellar, without calling attention to its self. But because 'TTSS' is SO plot-driven, I found that too much was jammed into the 2 hour run time. And the "too much" involves characters talking in rooms, without back story, context, or engaging action. The pace of the film is slow, but plot information flies by rapidly. This is a film where you have to work to keep up; luckily, I was game to work.
Gary Oldman gives his most restrained performance ever, but he's still quietly, subtly riveting. A great amount of complexity bubbles beneath his solemnly fixed expression. Of Oldman, director Alfredson even stated he has a great face that exudes the quiet intensity & intelligence that is needed for Smiley. Both Tom Hardy & Benedict Cumberbatch provide emotional gravitas with their secret agent character arcs. Colin Firth is stellar as 1 of the 4 assumed to be the mole; and it's nice to see him in a not-so-amiable role, for once. John Hurt steals scenes as Control. Mark Strong is probably my best-in-show aside from Oldman. I found him very effective. Toby Jones, Kathy Burke, Ciaran Hinds, I could go on & on -- the acting is great. I just wish there were fewer characters, or better emotional characterizations for some of them.
For as many things as 'TTSS' gets right: the paranoia that dominated the 70's in European relations; keeping us guessing who the mole is; impeccable visual flair; solid acting ... the density of the narrative forces us to absorb too much in too little of a running time. I needed to know more about these men to grasp onto a lot of the intently-meaningful dialogue concerning them. I can actually only think of one(!) scene where there's considerable tension - when Peter Guillam steals something from within 'The Circus'. Instead, its scattered flashbacks & aforementioned scenes of glum, chain-smoking agents rattling their tea cups & muttering to themselves in darkened rooms; some of these scenes are riveting, some incomprehensible. 'TTSS' is undoubtedly an intelligent, moody espionage thriller to curl up to ... I just happen to prefer Daniel Craig's antics.
Fellow agent George Smiley (Gary Oldman) had been forced into retirement by the departure of Control, but is asked by a gov't figure (Simon McBurney) to investigate a story told to him by rogue agent, Ricky Tarr (Tom Hardy), that there was a mole. Smiley believes that the failure in Budapest + the suspicious success of Operation Witchcraft (a source of Soviet Intelligence) confirms this, & takes up the task of finding the mole. Through the painstaking efforts of agent Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch), Smiley gets info that leads him to Jim Prideaux, the agent at the heart of the Budapest fiasco. With his razor-sharp senses & ghost-like ability to spy, Smiley pieces the puzzle together; leading him to the true intentions of Operation Witchcraft and the true identity of the mole.
'TTSS' is pretty much the anti-Bond movie. It's dry as a bone. There are no bombs, chases, gadgets, explosions, stunts, or supermodels parading across the screen. And George Smiley is the antithesis of Bond; as written in the source material by author John Le Carre (later made into a British miniseries). Smiley is quiet, cool, antisocial, yet brilliant. He wears no gun. But he can match spyspeak & wits with anyone. His words act as bullets.
This film is of a high caliber, for sure. I liked the director's bleak sense of Cold War England (he also mastered this for Sweden with Let the Right One). Feelings of paranoia & anxiety permeate the screen; it is almost impossible to discern who to trust. The cinematography is superb; lots of shadows & great use of a gray/green/brown color palette. The period production design & costumes place you RIGHT into Cold War England -- the visual style seeps into everything. And Alberto Iglesias' score is stellar, without calling attention to its self. But because 'TTSS' is SO plot-driven, I found that too much was jammed into the 2 hour run time. And the "too much" involves characters talking in rooms, without back story, context, or engaging action. The pace of the film is slow, but plot information flies by rapidly. This is a film where you have to work to keep up; luckily, I was game to work.
Gary Oldman gives his most restrained performance ever, but he's still quietly, subtly riveting. A great amount of complexity bubbles beneath his solemnly fixed expression. Of Oldman, director Alfredson even stated he has a great face that exudes the quiet intensity & intelligence that is needed for Smiley. Both Tom Hardy & Benedict Cumberbatch provide emotional gravitas with their secret agent character arcs. Colin Firth is stellar as 1 of the 4 assumed to be the mole; and it's nice to see him in a not-so-amiable role, for once. John Hurt steals scenes as Control. Mark Strong is probably my best-in-show aside from Oldman. I found him very effective. Toby Jones, Kathy Burke, Ciaran Hinds, I could go on & on -- the acting is great. I just wish there were fewer characters, or better emotional characterizations for some of them.
For as many things as 'TTSS' gets right: the paranoia that dominated the 70's in European relations; keeping us guessing who the mole is; impeccable visual flair; solid acting ... the density of the narrative forces us to absorb too much in too little of a running time. I needed to know more about these men to grasp onto a lot of the intently-meaningful dialogue concerning them. I can actually only think of one(!) scene where there's considerable tension - when Peter Guillam steals something from within 'The Circus'. Instead, its scattered flashbacks & aforementioned scenes of glum, chain-smoking agents rattling their tea cups & muttering to themselves in darkened rooms; some of these scenes are riveting, some incomprehensible. 'TTSS' is undoubtedly an intelligent, moody espionage thriller to curl up to ... I just happen to prefer Daniel Craig's antics.