Posted in: Movies, Recent Updates, Review | Tagged: benedict cumberbatch, gary oldman, john le carre, soldier, spy, tailor, tinker, tinker tailor soldier spy, tomas alfredson

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – Hannah's Review

Bereft of the guns, girls and glamour we know from the James Bond franchise, a realistic spy thriller is a dastardly tricky thing to pull off.

At least in a way that will work as a big screen attraction.

A spy thriller where almost all of the main cast members are over the age of fifty is even trickier. A spy thriller that is, at heart, more akin to an episode of Inspector Morse than Mission Impossible or Die Another Day is the hardest sell of all.

But it works.

Against all odds, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is as engaging as it is complex, and feels decidedly cinematic rather than something you'd watch with a tray of sausage and mash on your knees.

The film is based on the John Le Carré novel of the same name, written in the the 1970s and in the midst of Cold War paranoia. Agent Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong) is shot in the back and taken prisoner by the Soviets whilst on a mission for MI6. Shortly after, scalphunter Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy) has an affair with the wife of a Moscow Centre intelligence officer and discovers that there is a Soviet mole buried deep in the upper echelons of the Circus.

There are only a very small number of suspects but each one looks shiftier than the last. Expert snoop George Smiley (Gary Oldman) is brought out of his enforced retirement to get to the bottom of the information leak.

The suspects are Percy Alleline, played by the fascinating-to-look-at Toby Jones; the lecherous Bill Haydon, played by Colin Firth; Roy Bland (Ciarán Hinds) and Toby Esterhase (David Dencik).

Doing Smiley's dirty work for him is Peter Guillam, played brilliantly by Benedict Cumberbatch, and along the way he is aided by Kathy Burke as Connie Sachs and Stephen Graham as Jerry Westerby.

Amongst the Soviet agents embroiled in the betrayal is a man named Polyakov, who I was pleasantly surprised to see played by Konstantin Khabesnkiy from Night Watch and Day Watch. Oh, and Control is played by John Hurt.

Bloody hell, that cast list is just overkill.

Most films would have been happy to settle for just a Firth or a Hurt or an Oldman and round the rest of the players out with lesser-known actors, but Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy gathered stars like a polyester cardigan collecting bits of lint (not the most flattering image in the world but I mean well).

Some of the best actors around are seen struggling against each other for screen time but there really are no weak spots in the acting. Everyone is as fantastic as you'd expect them to be and the performances alone would probably have carried the film by themselves. Aside from making the film extremely visually interesting, director Tomas Alfredson clearly used his talents to pull the best out of every actor in his arsenal.

Non-spies and people unfamilair with John Le Carré may find themselves somewhat left behind in the M16 jargon, which makes the dense and multi-layered narrative even more difficult to follow, and if you leave to go to the toilet for 5 minutes you might come back and find yourself with no idea where you are or how you got there.

Major plot points are also sometimes dropped with great subtlety, so those with poor attention spans might find themselves frustrated. Whether this is a flaw on the part of the film or the viewer depends entirely on your view.*

The film could also be criticised for moving quite slowly, and having a lot of talky scenes, but by contrast, the occasional shocking moments of violence have a far greater impact.

Generally speaking, I'm not a fan of spy films or crime dramas, so the fact that I liked Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy means that at least it manages to transcend a specific genre audience. On the other hand, if you like spy dramas you'll be spoiled rotten by it.

Another thing's for sure: if you lived through the 70s then the nostalgia factor will probably knock you dead. These sets are brilliant.

I intended to end this review with a quip along the lines of, "… but then I'd have to kill you," but I can't think of any way to do so. Damn and blast.**

*Brendon's note: It would be the viewer's fault.

**Brendon's other note: I'm glad you didn't… because then I'd have to kill you.

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