Review – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
The big final payoff is everything. What’s the point of covering yourself in detergent to zip down a slip-n’ slide, unless you’re going to make a big splash in the pool at the end? ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ isn’t worth lathering up for because there is no big slash pool of glory at the end, and it’s a long bloody slip-n’ slide.
During the Cold War a British secret agent George Smiley (Gary Oldman) is pulled out of semi-retirement to try and track down a Soviet agent who has embedded themselves in the top brass of the intelligence agency MI6.
The story promises plenty of espionage and mystery, but you have to drudge through a lot of bland drama to get anything interesting. The ending doesn’t justify over two hours of Oldman just staring into the distance and I was really disappointed.
The cast are great but it’s a shame they’re not given anything to work with considering their talent. Oldman, John Hurt, Mark Strong, Toby Jones, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hardy, Ciaran Hinds, David Dencik and Colin Firth are an acting tour de force wasted.
There is a bit of romantic man love in ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ that is perfectly fine, there is nothing better than seeing two people in love – same sex, mixed sex, mi-sex, it doesn’t bother me. It did start to boarder on the ridiculous though when it seemed that every male character was in love with someone else. It felt like the characters weren’t afraid of the Russians, they were more worried that Craig wasn’t scrawling “I heart George” in the back of his secret agent notebook.
‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ is like watching a large candle burn down to nothing and then wondering why there weren’t any fireworks. Maybe I was expecting too much? Considering the cast and the subject matter it may be a case of too much of a good thing, which in the case of ‘Tinker Tailor Solider Spy’, produces a lot of yawning.
2/5
‘Tinker Tailor Solider Spy’ is released 19 January 2012
Universal
The Popcorn Junkie
With so much information being thrown at us, I wish that there was much more time for all of it to just sink in but I liked the fact that the film made you pay attention to every little detail as this story just kept building and building. Everybody here in this cast is great too, especially Oldman who perfectly brings this flick together. Good review Cameron.
You clearly have the attention span of a gnat. Why don’t you try, say, Dora the explorer if all you want is instant gratification, and a few explosions? An outstanding film for a thinking person;.An outstanding film, one of the best I’ve seen in ages.
Could not agree more with this review. Finally watched this recently and was so disappointed/bewildered ‘ve been tracking down poor reviews to stop me questioning my sanity(!) I love slow films where nothing happens and people stare longingly into the middle-distance. But this was ridiculous. We found out NOTHING about the people Smiley was investigating. Which made the ‘reveal’ one of the biggest “so what?” moments in history. Who was that guy? (I won’t spoil it just in case). He appeared about 3 times during the film.
I would urge anyone to watch the original BBC 7 part series from 1979. It’s a masterpiece. This was the “Emperor’s New Clothes”.
You are absolutely correct. The movie (like the book) is not for the simple minded.
Please, please, please watch the 1979 miniseries starring Alec Guiness! Same material, same dry tone, but absolutely mesmerizing from start to finish. And features perhaps my favorite opening scene of all time.
Whereas this film somehow managed to remove absolutely everything of value from its engaging source material. It’s beautifully shot, to be sure, but that’s about it.