Gee Film Reviews

12th January 2012

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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Movie Review

Grade: C

Tomas Alfredson’s film adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is so indubitably intricate and complex, that only those willing to engross themselves in the film will find any sort of gratification. While Tinker is stunningly a visual chef-d’oeu·vre, its convoluted attempt to compress a thrilling and extensive tale of espionage falls more into a category of the insipid. 

Based on John Le Carre’s book of the same name -  infamously known as the novel that changed the game of the “spy” genre - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy tells the story of George Smiley (Gary Oldman), a former espionage who is called from retirement to find a mole within British Intelligence. Years after a failed incident in Cold War Hungary, Smiley is given information that a double agent is midst the top of the British agency - nicknamed the “circus” - and was responsible for the mishap. The film then revolves around Smiley’s venture to identify the mole, which includes an impressive limey acting force of Colin Firth, Toby Jones, Ciaran Hinds and David Denik.

While the writing does dive-in into the issues of humanity’s morality - the trademark of Le Carre’s original novel - the film is an utter bore. Originally adapted into a BBC miniseries comprised of several episodes, the film thrives on putting each element of plot in every single minute of its run time. From the opening frame, confusion commences as the audience is challenged to find out what’s going on and most importantly: why should we care? There is no back story to these moles, nor is there really a motivating or underlying urgency to identify this traitor. As mentioned, the audience looks for the award in watching Tinker Tailor, as it is not  a very inviting film to the average movie-goer. While some may seem satisfied by the  film’s labyrinth of a story, it is paced too slowly with so much information that no emotion is really expressed by the film. Not too mention - although an optional aspect if I may ask - that Tinker boasts no excitement or thrilling instances whatsoever, where only some traces may be found in the endless plot twists.

Set aside the excessive complexity and dullness of the film, Oldman’s performance is one to behold. The veteran actor maintains such a subtle poise that really emanates the restrained emotion that his character feels.  As opposed to the other characters in the film, he is isolated in the fact that he’s the only character the audience gets to analyze; as the others play pedestrians in the film’s dull backdrop. The other star of the film is Hoyte van Hoytema’s cinematography. The film’s abrasive and dark tone is achieved through the Hoytema’s chilling imagery. From the film’s various close-ups and stunning shots of setting, this aspect of the film truly captures the malevolence of the period, that was unfortunately absent in the premise.

Overall, if you are not willing to get past the perplexing structure of Alfredson’s uninviting film, Tinker Tailor is really hard to recommend. The audience presumably gets as much gratification as they are willing to put up the film’s endless details and lack of thrills. Although undoubtedly cerebral and visually intelligent, this adaptation is much too dreary for a tale that “changed the way we look at spy genre.” Grade: C

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