3.5 stars out of 5
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a smartly written, wonderfully performed, expertly directed film which I enjoyed very much… and yet, left the theater wondering, “Wait—what the hell just happened?”
I never read the book, mysteries not really being my bag, and I was too young for the mini-series. But it’s one of those titles that just seemed to be everywhere during my youth. In supermarket racks of paperbacks, with Coma, Shogun, All Creatures Great and Small, etc.
And I shouldn’t have to read the book to totally get what’s going on, right? The fact that it was adapted as a 7-part mini-series is a bit of a red flag: By stretching things out, I imagine various confusions about the ending were handled quite clearly.
Still, a pleasure to watch. Gary Oldman bounces back from paychecks like Commissioner Gordon and Sirius Black to really inhabit a role. It’s much more subdued than the young man I remember in Sid and Nancy and Track 29 but no less compelling. As veteran intelligence officer George Smiley, he’s been professionally and personally wounded but, well, you’ve seen movies—he’s called back to crack one more case to, well, you’ve seen 24—to uncover a mole at the highest ranks. Wouldn’t be surprised by a Best Actor nomination.
Oldman is surrounded by other great actors: John Hurt (very different role than in Melancholia but just as believable), Ciarán Hinds (who I enjoyed very much in The Eclipse), man-of-the-hour Colin Firth, various other Brits you may or may not recognize including young Al Capone from Boardwalk Empire.
Tomas Alfredson (who also directed Let the Right One In, which I really need to put on my Queue) puts you right in the bleak 1970’s days of the Cold War, with England uncomfortably wedged between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. We don’t get car chases or a lot of gunplay: The tension builds as Smiley slowly unravels the mystery. As in any time period, lust for power and, well, lust for lust have gummed up the works. We also see the ingrained institutional nonsense that The Wire did such a nice job of highlighting, which can often get in the way of doing a good job. Smiley, weary but dogged, peels away layer after layer in his pursuit.
Clues are slowly collected, ample flashbacks flesh out relationships, and then, there’s the conclusion. Which I won’t spoil. It makes sense, but to me it felt like we meticulously went from A to B to C to D, etc. etc, but then jumped from V to Z. Which then made me wonder about G, and wait, didn’t M say that…. So I’ll be on Wikipedia trying to sort things out. Or maybe looking for a used paperback.
Another excellent review, Jack.