Review: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Before the opening credits of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy even appear, you might find yourself thinking that it’s slow. This is an indication: if you want to enjoy the movie, pay attention.

The cinematography captured the atmosphere of the film perfectly. The dreary English weather reflected the mood within the Secret Intelligence Service and the film was packed with some of Britain’s finest stars who all delivered wonderful performances. One character that came across as underexplored is Roy Bland (portrayed by Ciarán Hinds). The lack of talk about him, and lack of screen time indicate that he was not considered a vital character by the film’s director, Tomas Alfredson, which only narrows down the list of potential the potential mole for the viewers.

That being said, the film also seems like it’s trying to compensate for not being able to cover all of the material written by John le Carré which just overly complicates things.

Gary Oldman as George Smiley was great but the characters that I felt the most connection to were Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong) and Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy). They ultimately came across as the most human of characters and were willing to do what was expected of them, not what could gain the most advantage from, even if it meant breaking some rules.

The word “gripping” has been thrown about to describe this film, but is not a word I would use to describe it. I will admit that there were slow bits; parts where you will get lost in your own thoughts and miss a vital piece of information. It’s almost as if people are ashamed to say that they didn’t quite understand a part because they believe it will reflect on their intelligence. The thing to remember is that even if they are fictional, many of the characters themselves didn’t understand what it was that they had done. Also, as someone who has not read the original novel, there is an air to the film that suggests the book has many details that are needed for a complete understanding of the story.

What I admire about this film is its attempts to explore human vices, and I believe it is a very realistic portrayal of this, no matter how unique the story line may be to the majority of us.

Wonderful cinematography, a subtle, elegant score and great performances from some of Britain’s most well-known stars, but the plot seemed to be missing its spark. So it’s a 4/5 for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy from me.

What did you think of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy?

P.S. There was serious contemplation of a 3/5 but the atmosphere created by everything but the script was truly great. It’s just a shame that some more clarity wasn’t incorporated into the film. I just sat through it thinking I must have missed a whole load of clues. Some googling brought me up to speed on some of the finer details (particularly with that chess piece with just ‘Karla’ written on it. Apparently I missed every other reference to Karla, so watch out for mention of the name; it’s fairly important to being able to follow the story).