Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

Back in 1974 John le Carréc released a spy novel named ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’, the first of six novels featuring George Smiley. In 1979 the story was adapted into a seven part television series featuring Alec Guinness, which became a huge success. So it was inevitable that it would eventually be remade into a film.

Taking a page out of the ‘Harry Potter’ series and having a mainly British cast (David Dencik was born in Sweden) as well as Russian cast members, this film has some of the best Britain has to offer, including Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Colin Firth, John Hurt and Benedict Cumberbatch. So a film with Sirius Black, Bane, a...dragon and Sherlock Holmes must be good right?

And it certainly is.

The plot is exceptional. If you haven’t heard what the plot is, Smiley, played by Oldman, is tasked to investigate a mole in the British intelligence service who is giving good information to the Russians. The film keeps you guessing whilst keeping you hooked. Films like this are designed to make you think, to see if you can work out who the traitor is before the film tells you. If you got it right, well, good for you. But if you didn’t get it, you do feel it should’ve been obvious.

The acting is, of course, superb. Oldman gives a brilliant performance as George Smiley, though I must admit I should see the original television series in order to see what difference, if any, there is between Oldman and Guinness. Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch also gave one of the best performances of their live; they, and everyone else, gave it their all.

And I really did like the grainy technique the film used, it really gave the film a much better feeling towards it. The setting was very well done, it truly felt like we were transported back to the 1970s.

 

There were some bad bits though. Whilst there was a great pool of talent in this film, I do feel that not all of them got much screen time, especially Colin Firth, who I felt was greatly underused, though he still delivers a stunning performance. It looked like the film struggled to keep track of all the characters, and it really showed as we don’t really learn much about any of the characters. Sure, we get some information, but with all the different characters and their backgrounds, we could have gotten a lot more interesting facts from them.

Not only that, but the flow of the film kept getting broken up. One second Smiley is having a swim, then he’s in a meeting, then the past, then some random other place, you really do need to pay attention very hard in order to fully understand it.

Then again, I suppose in order to truly appreciate the film, you had to have read the book and/or have watched the original television series.

This is certainly a great film and worth a watch. Is it as a masterpiece though? No, it isn’t, but it’s definitely one of the best films that has come out this year, certainly worth going to see.